t^ 







/ 



MEXICO 




Venustiano Careanza. 



[Page 314] 



MEXICO 



FROM CORTES TO CARRANZA 






LOUISE sfpASBROUCK) ^c^^-.u^r^ 




ILLUSTRATED 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK LONDON 

1918 



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Copyright, 1918 
d, appleton and company 



DEC 1 1 1918 



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Printed in the United States of America 



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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

I desire to express my indebtedness in the compilation 
of this history to the authors of the following volumes. 

"The Mexican People: Their Struggle for Freedom," 
by L. Gutierrez De Lara & Edgcumb Pinchon. 
(Doubleday, Page & Co., 1914.) 

"Political Shame of Mexico," by Edward I. Bell. 
(McBride, Nash & Co., 1914.) 

"History of Mexico," by Hubert Howe Bancroft. 
(Bancroft Co., 1914.) 

"Short History of Mexico," by Arthur Howard Noll. 
(A. C. McClurg, 1890.) 

"The Story of Mexico," by Susan Hale. (G. P. Put- 
nam, 1889.) 

"Fernando Cortez," by Francis A. MacNutt. (G. P. 
Putnam, 1909.) 

"Dispatches to the Emperor Charles V," by Hernando 

Cortes. 
"Hernando Cortes," by Sir Arthur Helps. (Putnam, 

1871.) 
"True History of the Conquest of Mexico," by Bernal 

Diaz del Castillo. (Written in 1568.) 

"Mexico," by Brantz Mayer. (Hartford, Drake, 1851.) 
"Conquest of Mexico," by W. H. Prescott. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

"Insurgent Mexico," by John Keed. (Appleton, 1914.) 

"Maximilian in Mexico," by Sara Yorke Stevenson. 
(Century, 1899.) 

"Mexico as I Saw It," by Mrs. E. B. Tweedie. (Mac- 
millan, 1901.) 

"Story of Mexico," by Charles Morris. 

"Diaz, Master of Mexico," by James Creelman. (Apple- 
ton, 1911.) 

"Mexico," by Frederick Jordan. 

"INahua Civilization," by Spence Lewis. Cambridge 
Manuals of Science and Literature. 

L. S. Hasbeouck:. 



VI 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

Prologue 



PAGE 



I. Myths and Monuments of Ancient 

Mexico ...... 1 

II. A Child in the Aztec Capital . 11 

III. Manners and Customs of the Aztecs 24 

IV. Early Spanish Explorations . 42 

V. The Boy who was born to Adven- 
ture — Fernando Cortes . . 49 

VI. Cortes Gains a Eoothold on the 

Mexican Coast .... 60 

VII. The Rich City of the True Cross Y3 

VIII. On to Mexico .... 82 

IX. Kidnapping a Monarch . . 103 

X. The Revolt of the Aztecs . 125 

XI. The Aztec Gods Depart Eorever 137 

XII. After the Conquest . . . 147 

XIII. Mexico Under the Viceroys . 160 

XIV. The Revolution for Independence 

(as told by Pipila) . .183 

XV. Iturbide and Santa Anna . . 208 

vii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVI. The Eevolt of Texas . . .216 

XVII. War with the United States . 226 

XVIII. Benito Juarez, the Little Indian 243 

XIX. Maximilian, Meddler and Martyr 249 

XX. Diaz — the Despot . . .280 
XXL The Fall of Diaz . . .296 

XXII. Madero and Huerta . • • 304 

XXIII. Carranza and Villa • • ,312 



viu 



LIST OF illustkatio:rs 

Ventjstiano Caeeanza . . . Frontispiece ^ 



FACING 
PAGE 



The House of the Nuns at Uxmal . . . 8 1/ 

Feenando Coetez . . . . . . 56 $/ 

Montezuma II. and the Temple of Human 

Saceifice ....... 112 

Festival Day on the Plaza . . .178 

The Alamo 224^' 

Diaz ' . 292 



Cathedeal of Mexico — Mexico City . . 320 



ir^ 



IX 



MEXICO 

FKOM CORTES TO CARRAKZA 

CHAPTEE I 
MYTHS AND MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

Foe centuries upon centuries Mexico, that great un- 
quiet land to the south of us, has been the home of more 
or less civilized peoples. There was luxury and refine- 
ment there at the time Columbus sailed the seas. There 
are ruins of great buildings there to-daj whose origin 
is more mysterious than that of the Pyramids of Egypt. 
There are stories of races who grew great and perished, 
no one knows when nor how. All that is left to us of 
Mexican history before the Spanish Conquest are a 
few names, a few guesses, a few ^^picture-writings," and 
these stories. We shall hear some of the latter. 

On the great table-land of Mexico, with its healthful, 
temperate climate, a succession of shadowy early peo- 
ples fought with each other for supremacy. The de- 
feated ones passed on, usually to the hot and humid 
Gulf Coast or to Yucatan and Central and South Amer- 
ica. The first of these that we hear of was a race of 

1 



MEXICO 

giants, the Quinames. These fell before the Xicalan- 
cans, "People of the Land of Pumpkins/' and the 
TJlmecas, "People of the Rubber Lands/' who in turn 
left the plateau and settled on the Gulf. 

After them came the mysterious Mayas, whose de- 
scendants live in Yucatan to-day* They are said to be 
responsible for the ruins of the dead cities buried in 
the jungles of Yucatan — the ruins whose walls, built 
of great blocks of stone and covered with rich and in- 
tricate carvings, are the delight and despair of ex- 
plorers, who try to reconstruct from them a long- 
vanished civilization. 

Then came a ruder race, the Otomis, who at one time 
peopled the whole Mexican plateau, and whose descend- 
ants still live on the plateau of Guanajuato and Quere- 
taro. And last came the ITahuas, who made history. 

Who were these N"ahuas, the not very far-back an- 
cestors of the highly civilized Indians whom the Span- 
ish conquered? Where did they come from, and how 
did they gain their civilization, equal in many respects 
to that of their conquerors? This is a subject which 
we seem to know less about, the more we study it! 
A great student of these matters. Lord Kingsborough, 
went insane after writing nine large volumes on early 
Mexican history; while another scholar, after twenty- 
five years of study, admitted that he was still in doubt 
of almost everything! !N"ot many years after the Con- 
quest there were more than forty theories as to who 

9 



MYTHS AISTD MONUMENTS 

these Indians were. Now, after several hundred years 
of study, the experts have reduced the list considerably. 

Away up in British Columbia, there lives to-day a 
group of Indian tribes called the Haidah. ,If you are 
ever in New York and visit, as you surely will, the 
American Museum of Natural History, you will see 
their totem poles, war-canoes, baskets, and pottery, with, 
perhaps, a reproduction of a whole Haidah family in 
and about a wigwam. 

These Indians have a peculiar sort of sculpture, and 
distinctive religious beliefs, which indicate a very 
ancient history. One of their principal gods, called 
different names by different tribes, is the "Man of the 
Sun," who descended from the sun in the shape of a 
bird and became a man to teach the people civilization. 

A similar god, under a different name, was wor- 
shiped by the Indians on the Mexican plateau centuries 
before the coming of white men. He was Quetzalcoatl, 
the "Fair God," who had sailed away towards the East, 
and whose return, or that of his descendants, was 
dreaded by the Emperor Montezuma. 

When we look at the art-forms, the carved totem- 
poles, pottery, etc., of these British Columbian Indians, 
we see a striking resemblance to the sculpture of the 
ancient Mexicans. These things lead some scientists 
to believe that the Aztecs, or Mexicans, who gave the 
Mexican plateau its name, and who lived there at the 
time of the Spanish conquest, came originally from 

3 % 



MEXICO 

the Far E'orth. But where they came from before 
then, nobody knows. Perhaps from Asia, the cradle 
of the human race, by way of Behring Strait, then pos- 
sibly dry land. There is something decidedly Asiatic 
in the appearance and customs of the Mexican Indians. 
One thing must be remembered, they are of a totally 
different stock from the ^'Eed Men" or E'orth American 
Indians. 

This theory that the E'ahuas came from the north 
agrees with their own stories. They think that they 
came to Mexico by way of the "Land of Sand." (Per- 
haps the Great American Desert?) The Mexicans in 
particular reached Mexico, they say, from a legendary 
land called "Aztlan," by way of ''Tlapallan," the 'Tlace 
of Bright Colors," a seacoast country. (California?) 

The first of the l^ahua tribes to settle on the Mexican 
plateau was the Toltecs. Their capital was supposed 
to have been Tollan, near the present town of Tula. 
Certainly there are at Tollan ruins of extensive build- 
ings which must have been built by some people, and 
why not the Toltecs, whose name means "builders" ? 

These Toltecs, according to the stories, were strong, 
well-built people, of a lighter complexion than most 
Indians, and with scanty beards. They were gentle- 
mannered, intelligent, loyal, swift runners, brave, and 
cruel in war. They understood agriculture, studied the 
stars and regulated their time and calendar by them, 
used plants for medicine, and were very artistic, as was 

4 



MYTHS AND MOl^UMEKTS 

shown by the beautiful jewelry they made of gold and 
silver and precious stones, and their attractive garments 
of cotton and other fabrics. 

These gentle Indians thought that they owed their 
knowledge of all these things to Quetzalcoatl, the Fair 
God, the tall white man who came from the East, as 
some of their legends say, or who descended from the 
sun in the form of a bird, as others have it. Jt may 
be that he was a European, drifted somehow to their 
shores. He stayed with the Toltecs twenty years, and 
during that time, they declared, flowers and fruit grew 
without cultivation, the cotton turned blue, yellow and 
red in the pod, the air was sweet with perfumes and 
filled with the songs of birds. And there was peace 
and good-will in the land, for every man loved his 
neighbor. It was the Golden Age of the Toltecs, but, 
alas, too short. Quetzalcoatl left the city of Cholula, 
which he had made his headquarters, and said good-by 
to the land of the Toltecs. He descended the steep slope 
to the Gulf of Mexico and sailed away upon a raft of 
serpent skins, to the unknown land of Tlalpalla. But 
before he left he told his sorrowing followers that one 
day his descendants, white men with full beards, like 
his, would come to them and teach them. 

Beliefs make history. Who the Fair God really was, 
or whether he ever existed, we do not know; but we do 
know that the belief in him was the main thing which 
helped a mere handful of Spaniards to conquer a vast 

5 



MEXICO 

number of Mexicans and overthrow their civilization, 
and therefore it is important to remember. 

It is said that one of the Toltec queens first dis- 
covered how to make an intoxicating drink out of the 
maguey, that stiff, tinny-looking plant which looms so 
large in Mexican history. Its leaves were used for 
paper, and as a thatch for houses, its fibers for thread, 
its thorns for pins and needles, its roots for food; and 
as if this were not enough, Xochitl must needs make 
it into a hurtful drink. As a result, the nation began 
to deteriorate, and the Chichimecs, a fierce neighbor- 
ing tribe, found it easy to invade their land and over- 
whelm them. This was about 1116 A. D. The Toltec 
kingdom is supposed to have lasted about four hundred 
years. The Chichimecs adopted the civilization of the 
Toltecs and overran the territory of a large part of 
present Mexico, including the states of Morelos and 
Puebla, a part of Vera Cruz, the greater part of 
Hidalgo, the whole of Tlascalla, and the Valley of 
Mexico. In the thirteenth century they moved their 
capital from Tollan to Texcuco, named from Lake 
Texcuco, on which the City of Mexico now stands. 

They had to fight for their possession of this dis- 
puted plateau. Immigration from the north was still 
going on, and other tribes of the Nahua family were 
settling in the neighborhood. Two main bodies of 
these tribes were the Aculhuaques and the Tepanecs, 
who each founded pueblos (villages) on the lake. An- 

6 



MYTHS AND MONUMENTS 

other was a miserable little wandering tribe, homeless, 
squalid, and bloodthirsty, wearing patches of gum and 
feathers upon their ears and foreheads, who arrived on 
the border of Lake Texcuco after the other two men- 
tioned, and were bitterly despised by them. They 
settled first upon the hill of Chapultepec, high above 
the lake, with a spring of clear water — a too-desirable 
spot, from which they were soon driven out by the 
Chichimecs and Tepanecs. The newcomers took refuge 
then upon some islands in the lake of Texcuco. Here 
they built themselves frail huts of reeds and rushes, 
lived on a meager diet of fish and insects, and served 
their neighbors as slaves. These despised and humble 
creatures were no other than the Aztecs, or Mexicans, 
who were to become the rulers of the entire valley. 

According to their own legends, the Aztecs had been 
wandering from their ancient home for about six hun- 
dred years, stopping here and there to settle for a 
time, and build houses and temples. Each time they 
moved, their priests directed them when and where 
to go. Finally they reached the Mexican plateau. 
They liked the appearance of the great oval plain, sur- 
rounded by snow-capped mountains, and carrying the 
great Lake of Texcuco like a jewel in its bosonu 
Their priests commanded them to stop at Chapultepec. 
Driven out from there, they huddled on the lake islands 
until they should be able to gain something better. 
Their name Aztec, meaning "Crane People," was 

7 



MEXICO 

given them by the Tepanecs, perhaps because they 
lived like cranes in the marshes; their name of Mexi- 
cans they had given themselves from the name of their 
war-god, Mexitli. 

Soon the Tepanecs, the neighboring lake-tribe, real- 
ized that the "Crane People" could fight. They helped 
the Tepanecs in their perpetual war against the Chichi- 
mecs with great success. But the Tepanecs, instead 
of being grateful, were jealous, especially since the 
Aztecs now refused to pay tribute, and demanded per- 
mission to build an aqueduct to the main land, osten- 
sibly to carry water, but really, the Tepanecs feared, 
for purposes of invasion. The Tepanecs refused them 
permission to build it, and, moreover, stopped trading 
with them. This was a great blow to the Crane 
People, who depended upon trading their fish and game 
for wood, stone and other necessities which the Tepanecs 
could furnish them. The Tepanecs, to punish still 
further these rebellious slaves, caused the chief of one 
of their villages to be assassinated, and the other chief 
to be captured. 

The Crane People rose as one man. Another chief, 
Jzcohuatl, with thirteen captains, led his people to 
a great battle in which the Tepanecs were utterly de- 
feated, with great slaughter. The Tepanec capital 
passed into the hands of the Aztecs. This was in or 
about the year 1428. Izcohuatl and the thirteen cap- 
tains are still remembered as heroes in Mexican history. 

8 




The House of the I^ui^s at Uxmal. 



MYTHS Ai^D mo:n^ume:n^ts 

Tlie sun had now fairly risen upon the Aztecs, and 
the day of their power was to be dazzling to the last 
degree. Three kings followed, all brothers of each 
other and of the first king. Each was more warlike, 
enterprising and cruel than the last. There is no 
especial need for us nowadays to distinguish between 
them, or even to remember their long names. It is 
enough to know that under their reign, Mexican mer- 
chants penetrated farther into the country and Mexi- 
can armies conquered ever more widely. Finally, with 
a few exceptions, all the country east to the Gulf and 
west to Michoacan, south to Yucatan and north nearly 
as far as what is now Texas came under the influence 
of the former insect-eaters. The exceptions are worth 
noticing. They were the districts of Cholula and 
Tlascalla, between the coast and the capital. Upon 
the people of these places the Mexicans were in the 
habit of making bloody wars in order to obtain victims 
to sacrifice to their war-gods. When the Spaniards 
came, they found these little mountain republics full 
of warriors eager to avenge themselves on the Aztecs. 

The conquering Mexicans on their plateau supplied 
themselves with everything that they needed, with the 
help of the tribes under their influence. From those 
near the Gulf they got raw cotton, which they made 
into beautiful garments, fresh fish (it is said that swift 
runners brought fish from the coast to Montezuma every 
twenty-four hours) ; from others, gold and precious 

9 



MEXICO 

stones for their jewelry; from others, building materi- 
als and so on. Thus their homes and lives grew ever 
more comfortable and luxurious. 

Under the successive reigns of the three brothers, 
the great temple or teocalli to Huitzilopochtli the war- 
god was built, causeways were constructed from the 
island to the main land, and dikes built to prevent 
the city from being flooded by the waters of the lake in 
rainy seasons. 

In 1503, Montezuma II came to the throne — a 
humble-minded priest, apparently, sweeping down the 
stairs in the great temple when they summoned him to 
the kingship. Under his reign Mexico was to reach 
its greatest magnificence and its downfall. 

We have read this brief story of the history previous 
to Montezuma. Let us do what is more interesting, 
go back and live for a time in the beautiful city of the 
Aztecs. 



CHAPTEE II 
A CHILD IN THE AZTEC CAPITAL 

If any Mexican child wished to know the meaning 
of the long name of the principal city of the country, 
Tenochtitlan, he was told the following story. 

When the Aztecs first arrived in the lake region, 
about one hundred years before the coming of Monte- 
zuma II to the throne, they were told by their priests 
that the War-god, Huitzilopochtli, had decreed that they 
should found a city, on a spot to be indicated as fol- 
lows. They should see a nopal, a kind of cactus, grow- 
ing from a rock, and sitting upon it an eagle, with a 
snake in its beak. On the shore of Lake Texcuco the 
Aztecs suddenly came upon this very combination of 
objects. To make things doubly sure, a priest straight- 
way dived into a pool to ask Tlaloc, the god of the 
waters, if they might build there. So, according to the 
legend, was the city begun; and its very name, 
Tenochtitlan, signifies, the Place of the Stone and the 
Nopal. An eagle perched upon a cactus with a snake 
in its mouth formed the coat-of-arms of the old Mexican 

11 



MEXICO 

kings, and upon the Mexican flag to-daj is the same 
emblem. 

According to modem ideas, the War-god did not use 
very good judgment in his choice of a site, for the 
ground under Tenochtitlan is low and marshy. But 
this led to an arrangement picturesque and interesting, 
if not entirely convenient. Canals were cut by these 
enterprising Aztecs through the islands and marshes, 
to serve instead of streets, and traffic was carried on in 
canoes, which darted to and fro as unconcernedly, and 
far more quietly and gracefully, than the automobiles 
in our streets. Many of the canals had basins and 
locks for retaining the waters, and were spanned by 
bridges which could be drawn up at will in case of 
attack by an enemy. 

A child of this old Aztec city, given a ride in one of 
these jolly canoes, which were miade of hollow logs, 
would pass between shining silvery houses, raised on 
terraces from the watery street. The open doors of 
these houses would give glimpses of delightful court- 
gardens, where fountains cooled the air, flowers nodded 
their bright heads, and families gathered to enjoy 
their leisure hours. Around the court, in the houses 
of the well-to-do, were large, airy rooms, with hard, 
smooth cement floors, and walls covered with cotton and 
featherwork tapestries in brilliant colors. There was 
little furniture in these rooms — only mats and cushions 
of furs, cotton and palm-leaves, which served as beds 

12 



A CHILD IN THE AZTEC CAPITAL 

and couche§, some low wooden benches and tables, and 
bamboo screens, which took the place of doors. From 
the open doors came perhaps to the nose of our little 
Aztec the odor of sweet incense, the gum called copal 
burned in earthen braziers filled with hot coals. 

These houses were made of large hewn stones held 
together with cement, the whole surface covered with 
a sort of plaster which glistened in the sun. The 
poorer people had houses made of adobe or reeds mixed 
with mud, also coated with plaster, and built on the 
same general plan as those of the rich, with an open 
court in the center, which might thriftily be used as 
a vegetable garden, and a roof thatched with long grass. 

Let us imagine such a child, and what else he would 
see if he came from some village in the country to visit 
in Tenochtitlan. And since even an imaginary boy 
must have a name, we will give him the name Axaya- 
catl, after one of the old Mexican kings, and call him 
Axa for short ! ^ 

"What a crowd!" Axa exclaims, as they approach 
the market; and indeed, the great square, with its 
countless booths, is thronged with so many people that 
they make a noise like a huge hive of bees, which 
can be heard for some miles away. Yet there is per- 
fect order. The people are dark-skinned, gentle-voiced, 

*The details concerning Aztec life and social customs con- 
tained in this and the following chapter are drawn mainly from 
the interesting account of these matters given in Hubert Howe 
Bancroft's "History of Mexico." 

13 



MEXICO 

with agreeable, cheerful manners. Men and women 
are dressed much alike, in loose, flowing, colored cot- 
ton garments, with ornamental borders, or decorated 
with birds' feathers laid closely one upon the other 
in elaborate designs. Over these are thrown garments 
of rabbits' fur or other small skins when the weather 
is cool. The hair of the women hangs loosely upon 
their shoulders, as the hair of Mexican women does 
to-day. And everywhere there are flowers: wreaths 
on the dark heads, fresh, fragrant masses of them on 
the booths. Prom the dawn of their history the Mexi- 
cans have been flower-lovers. 

Axa wanders in and out among the booths, filled with 
curiosity about the different strange and delightful 
wares. There are merchants keeping close guard over 
piles of gold and silver ornaments, little ducks, lizards, 
and all sorts of birds and animals and natural objects, 
often set with glittering jewels, especially a stone the 
color of an emerald, called by the Aztecs chalchuite, 
and now known as a kind of jade. A more useful 
booth displays cups and painted pitchers of wood; an- 
other, pottery bowls, platters and water-bottles, very 
like the ones made in Mexico to-day; another, ropes 
and sandals made from nequen; another, paper made 
from maguey fiber. Pungent odors call attention to 
the wares of the merchant who sells dried herbs for 
medicine and cooking. The incense booth also pro- 
claims itself. The heap of bright red powder there 

14 



A CHILD m THE AZTEC CAPITAL 

is cocMneal, made from dried insects, and used in dye- 
ing; there are species of dye-woods also for sale at 
this table. 

And the food! Axa's mouth waters as he looks at 
the various eatables for sale. Game and poultry (tur- 
keys, ducks, rabbits, hares, deer and dogs), glistening 
scaly fish caught in the Gulf waters less than twenty- 
four hours before, lake fish also, dried fish, frogs, beans, 
tomatoes, red and green peppers, turkey eggs and turtle 
eggs, shrimps: piles upon piles of hot tortillas (corn 
cakes) all ready to eat, also various kinds of bread 
made of maize flour and eggs. To eat with them, 
honey and sweetmeats. 

Kot so nice to look at and not at all nice to smell 
are masses of a dark, powdery substance, dried ants and 
maguey flies, of which cakes are made. The Aztecs 
probably formed a taste for this food when the enmity 
of the neighboring tribes prevented their getting any- 
thing to eat but the fish and insects of the lake. An- 
other delicacy dating from this period of their history 
is a kind of bread made from the mud or slime from 
the lake, which tastes like cheese. There are also 
seeds of the wild amaranth, tule (bullrush) roots and 
cooked maguey roots. 

It would take too long to tell of all -the articles which 
Axa sees in this market of long ago, but one more item 
of merchandise may be mentioned — ^the slaves, usually 

15 



MEXICO 

war-captives, who are exhibited, with ropes around 
their necks, to prospective buyers. 

Half of the fun of the market for Axa is the trading. 
There are disputes about prices, but these are seldom 
serious, for the Aztecs are not quarrelsome. Besides, 
there are policemen to preserve order. 'No coins are 
used, but instead, one kind of goods may be traded 
for another, or payment is made in grains of cacao, 
which are counted out in. great numbers. When the piles 
of cacao become too large, pieces of tin shaped like the 
letter T are used instead. They have no value in 
themselves, but represent a certain amount of cacao. 
Sometimes, for very valuable purchases, gold-dust con- 
tained in transparent goose-quills is paid over. 

After a while Axa has had enough of the market, 
and tells the servant who has accompanied him to 
town that he is going for a walk about the city. All 
the streets of this Tenochtitlan are not water streets, 
but som.e are smooth cement avenues, wide and lined 
with trees. Following one of these, Axa comes soon upon 
a beautiful park, whose shady walks wind between 
rare trees, shrubs and flowering plants from all parts 
of Montezuma's kingdom, and whose lawns are inter- 
spersed with both fresh and salt water ponds, filled 
with all kinds of water fowl of every shade of plumage. 
But what excites Axa even more than these are the 
sounds which come from a large group of buildings 
well within the park — roars and chatterings, bird-calls 

16 



A CHILD IN THE AZTEC CAPITAL 

and snake-hisses. It is the menagerie or "Zoo" where 
Montezuma keeps all the fanna of Mexico. 

A particularly ferocious roar draws him to the 
open court, with low wooden cages, in which pace the 
tigers, jackals, foxes and other wild beasts of the 
Mexican mountains and plains. Keepers are feeding 
these with raw meat. After watching them gulp their 
dinner, Axa descends to a subterranean chamber, roofed 
partly with slabs of stone and partly with wooden grat- 
ings, where are kept the birds of prey. Five hundred 
turkeys are killed every day to provide them with food. 
In a great hall upstairs are the songsters, beautiful 
little birds of all colors. One species of bird about as 
large as a sparrow shows in its plumage five distinct 
colors, green, red, white, yellow and blue. Then there 
are bright green quezales, whose feathers are much used 
for decorative purposes, and gorgeous parrots. Here 
and there among the live songsters are birds of gold 
or silver, wrought very carefully and exactly in cor- 
rect imitation of rare birds which it had been impos- 
sible to obtain alive for the aviary. 

At a safe distance are the long cages housing the 
snakes. One is filled entirely with rattlesnakes, which 
are fed on fresh meat, dog-meat, and, alas, human 
sacrifices from the temples. 

After looking at these, Axa goes to the arsenal, 
where he sees the terrible double-edged swords of 
obsidian, volcanic glass so sharp it can cut a man'^s 

17 



MEXICO 

head off at a single blow ; also bows and arrows, slings, 
shields of wood, arrowproof armor of quilted and feath- 
ered cotton, and helmets of wood or bone, crested with 
plumes. 

Suddenly there is a noise outside, and one of the 
keepers of the arsenal says to Axa, 

"Montezuma is approaching on his way to the 
temple! If you stand at the door, you may see him; 
but mind that you keep your eyes downcast as he 
passes, or it will be the worse for you!" 

Axa crouches in the shadow of the doorway. A 
gorgeously dressed official, holding a wand in each 
hand, stalks by first, to give warning of the King's 
approach, and clear the road of wayfarers. !N^ext come 
a number of courtiers, also gorgeously dressed, but 
walking in silence, with downcast eyes, as must all 
those who attend the monarch, except his nearest rela- 
tives. Cats may have looked at kings in old Mexico, 
but no mere subjects were permitted to. Swaying on 
the shoulders of four nobles is now seen the King's 
litter, canopied and bordered with trappings of 
feather-work and jewels; and on it rides the King, the 
great Montezuma. 

So dark is the corner where Axa hides, and so long 
and dark the eyelashes of the Aztec boy, that somehow 
he manages to steal a look at the monarch without 
being detected; and this is what he sees. A slender 
man, the coffee of his complexion mixed with more 

18 



A CHILD IN THE AZTEC CAPITAL 

cream than usual in Mexico, a thin^ handsome face, 
and fine eyes, which Axa thinks might look either 
severe or kind, as occasion requires. There is an ex- 
pression on his face which puzzles Axa; a sad ex- 
pression, no, more than sad, a look of fear. What 
is it that Montezuma dreads? Is he not king of all 
Mexico, and has he not everything to make him happy ? 
Are not three hundred dishes of delicious food served 
to him on porcelain plates at each meal hy the most 
beautiful girls in the kingdom, with golden pitchers 
full of rich chocolate beaten to a froth? Does he not 
sit in his palace upon softest embroidered cushions, 
with a gold screen to protect his kingly person from 
the heat of the fire, which throws out an exquisite odor 
of cedar and other scented woods? Has he not the 
very ugliest imaginable humpbacked dwarfs to amuse 
him with their antics? Are not beautifully painted 
and gilt tubes, filled with liquid amber and the pre- 
cious herb called ''tabaco," handed him after meals, 
that he may inhale their smoke and so fall into a re- 
freshing sleep ? When he desires exercise, may he not 
play the game of totoloc with golden balls, or visit his 
pleasure houses along the shore of the lake, or hunt in 
special preserves, where none but himself is permitted 
to kill the deer, hare and rabbits ? What could mortal 
man want other than this? Yet the shadow is there, 
on the King's pale face; and as Axa observes it, the 
intuition which simple people often possess whispers 

19 



MEXICO 

to him that it will spread and spread till it covers all 
of Montezuma's kingdom. 

But A:xa is only a boy, and premonitions are quickly 
forgotten in the excitement of following the royal pro- 
cession to the temple. Soon he reaches the great lime- 
stone wall, more than a mile long, which encloses the 
sacred courtyard, and enters the gate. Over the white 
sandstone pavements of the yard pass and repass a 
multitude of people: priests, nuns, attendants and 
school-children, all of whose duty it is to keep the place 
in perfect order and the sacred fires in front of the 
altars perpetually burning. Montezuma's cortege has 
passed the many smaller temples, each with its court- 
yard and idols, and has paused before the Great Tem- 
ple where Montezuma alights, to make the ascent of 
the one hundred and fourteen steps on foot. Axa 
watches him and the courtiers wind slowly around the 
building, for the steps are so arranged that worshipers 
must walk all the way around the temple between the 
successive flights. When they reach the summit of 
the great edifice, which is like a pyramid with the top 
cut off, the air suddenly thrills with the strange, melan- 
choly ''boom" of the huge serpent-skin drum, struck 
by a priest to announce the human sacrifices made in 
honor of the King's visit. As far as eight miles away 
the Indians hear it and tremble. 

The sound fills Axa with such terror that he longs 
to fly ; but his feet are like lead, and superstition keeps 

20 



A CHILD IN THE AZTEC CAPITAL 

him rooted to the spot. As soon as Montezuma is 
through worshiping he, too, must pay his respects to 
these dreadful gods. So presently he finds himself 
climbing the staircase, with trembling knees. His 
fright is not lessened as he enters the chapel on the first 
floor. There, looming dimly through clouds of in- 
cense, raised upon high altars of stone, he sees two 
enormous idols, covered all over with gold and precious 
stones. The one at the right has a great, broad face, 
with distorted, angry eyes, a necklace of ornaments rep- 
resenting human hearts around his neck, serpents wind- 
ing about his body, a bow and a bunch of arrows in his 
hands. This is the terrible War-god, Huitzilopochtli. 
Beside him is the statue of a page, carrying his shield 
and spear. The idol at the left has a face like a bear, 
and uncanny, shining eyes, made from the mirrorlike 
stone, obsidian. He is Tetzcatlipuca, called ^'The Shin- 
ing Mirror." Is it the incense from the pans of burn- 
ing copal in front of them which wavers, or do they 
move ? Have they come to life, to show their fierce de- 
light in smoke made not alone by copal, but by the hu- 
man hearts that burn there in the embers ? Many vic- 
tims have been sacrificed this morning on the huge 
stone of sacrifice, a block of jasper five feet long which 
stands in front of the statue of the war-god. Its con- 
vex top shows how the victims lay, with chest raised 
for the fatal blow of the executioner-priest's obsidian 
knife. There is blood everywhere, on the sacrificial 

21 



MEXICO 

stone, tlie altars, the pavements, the priests' rohes and 
hands, and in their long hair. And as Axa gazes at 
the dreadful sights and breathes in the foul air, even his 
strong Aztec nerves give way, he feels faint, and hur- 
riedly leaves the chapel, not daring to look back lest he 
should meet the angry glances of the offended gods. He 
will not climb to .the next story, where rest the ashes of 
dead monarchs and nobles, still less to the upper plat- 
form, where are other chapels with horrible idols and 
the great serpent-skin drum. ]^o, he descends as fast as 
his legs will carry him to the courtyard, and even when 
he is in the midst of the orderly, busy throng he is not 
reassured. For there are other temples and idols all 
about, and suddenly he finds himself in front of one 
which is shaped like the great, yawning mouth of a ser- 
pent, with fangs exposed. Axa is not tempted to ex- 
plore this snake's interior; in fact, he does not stop 
running till he is well outside the courtyard walls. 
Even then he cannot help shuddering, as, looking over 
his shoulder, he sees the massive bulk of the great tem- 
ple towering over all the other buildings in the city, a 
great whited sepulcher, pure and shining without, 
within full of all abominations. What goes on in Axa's 
mind as he looks at it? Does he accept the human 
sacrifices as a necessity, and feel ashamed of himself 
for being terrified by them ? Or does he vaguely rebel^ 
wondering why such things have to be in this beautiful 
land, under this cloudless sky, and long for a day when 

22 



A CHILD IN THE AZTEC CAPITAL 

no more hearts shall be torn from living victims, when 
no more streams of blood shall trickle down the sides of 
the stone of sacrifice, — a day when the fat gods with 
their cruel faces shall be hurled down the steps of the 
temple and broken into a thousand pieces? 

Let us hope that he does; for these very things are 
to happen before Axa has grown to be a man. 



CHAPTEE III 
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS 

Wheit Axa first entered the temple, lie paused to 
look at the great calendar stone, one of the sights of 
the place. It was twelve feet across, and tremendously 
heavy. In bringing it to Tenochtitlan from the quarry, 
the floating bridge on which it was taken across the 
lake had broken down, and precipitated the stone and 
many of the priests who were superintending its mov- 
ing to the bottom of the lake. The priests were 
drowned, but the stone was finally raised and installed 
in the temple with many human sacrifices. 

Since this very calendar stone is to-day on exhibi- 
tion in the N^ational Museum of Mexico, we may look 
over Axa's shoulder and see it just as he did. 

The carvings signify the Mexican system of keeping 
time. They divided time into cycles, years and days. 
A cycle was fifty-two years. The year, like ours, con- 
sisted of three hundred and sixty-five days. At the 
end of every cycle they added five days which served 
the purpose of the twenty-ninth of February in our 
Leap Year in keeping the reckoning correct, but were 

24 



MAInTN^ERS and customs of the AZTECS 

nevertheless considered very unlucky. Each year was 
divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, and 
the months were divided into four weeks of five days 




The Gbeat Calendar Stone 

each. Each day had a different name, such as "Mon- 
key," "Rain," "Small Bird," "Sea Animal," and so 
on. The months were also named, such extraordinary 
names as "Garlands of corn on the necks of idols," or 
"Mother of the Gods." 

25 



MEXICO 

The Aztecs could not have divided time in this way 
if they had not been versed in mathematics and able to 
observe accurately the movements of the sun, stars and 
planets. 

After Axa left the temple, he went to the house of 
a boy friend where he had been invited to make a visit. 
The friend was named Maxtla. He belonged to a good 
family who lived in the best section of Tenochtitlan 
in a fine stone house. 

Axa, upon reaching there, found to his great delight 
that preparations for a party were in progress. The 
occasion was the birthday of Maxtla' s father. The 
servants, under the direction of Maxtla' s mother and 
sisters, were preparing many kinds of meat and fish, 
as well as the inevitable tortillas (corn meal cakes), 
frijoles (beans) and tomato sauces without which no 
meal is complete in Mexico, in modern times as well 
as ancient. 

Shortly the guests began to arrive, richly dressed in 
gay cotton garments embroidered with feathers, and 
with plumes in their hair. As soon as they entered 
the house, they were given bouquets of flowers in token 
of welcome. The host saluted those of a superior rank 
by touching his hand to the earth, then putting it to 
his lips. Special grandees had pans of burning copal 
waved in front of them. 

While waiting for the meal, some of the guests 
strolled through the beautiful courtyard, admiring the 

26 



MANNEKS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS 

grass and flowers. Others took their seats on mats or 
stools placed against the walls. All were carefully 
placed according to age and rank. Water and towels 
were passed by the servants, in order that they might 
cleanse their hands before eating, l^ext came pipes 
or smoking canes, filled with liquid amber or tobacco, 
of which each guest took a few puffs. This was sup- 
posed to make them hungry. 

When the feast began, the food, which had been kept 
warm in chafing-dishes, was served on artistic plates 
of gold, silver, earthenware or tortoise-shell. Each per- 
son, before eating, threw a small piece of food into a 
lighted brazier, as an offering to the god of fire. When 
all the guests had finished eating, and drinking the 
rich, sweet chocolate beaten up to a froth, the tables 
were cleared, and the servants had their meal. Then 
they passed bowls of water again, and the smoking- 
canes. 

After the dinner came music and dancing. The 
party did not break up until midnight, when the 
guests received at parting presents of food, robes, cacao 
beans and other things. Maxtla's people, who were 
rich, could afford such presents; but some families had 
been known to sell themselves into slavery for the sake 
of giving a single lavish feast, by which they hoped to 
make their memory immortal. 

Maxtla and his family and their guest now sought 
their couches. Axa wanted to stay awake and talk 

27 



MEXICO 

over the party, but lie was so tired tliat he went to 
sleep as soon as he lay down. Jt was just as well, for 
there was a still more exciting event next day. 

This was a great public festival given in the Plaza 
in honor of noblemen come to visit Montezuma. Early 
in the morning our friends hastened to the Plaza to 
take part in the dance. Eor weeks the choirs and 
bands belonging to the temples had been practicing 
music, and their leaders had been busy composing odes 
for the occasion. Now they were seated on mats in 
the square, surrounded by crowds of people. As Axa 
and his companions reached there, the music struck up, 
and the dance began. The musicians were in the cen- 
ter; around them was a small circle of the nobles and 
old men, outside them another circle of those of lower 
rank, while the third, a large one, in which Axa and 
Maxtla found places, consisted of young people. It 
was like three "Rings around a Rosy." Those in the 
inside circle moved slowly, in the next somewhat faster, 
while the young people on the outside swung round at 
a mad pace. All sang and moved their feet, arms, 
heads and bodies in time to the music, emphasizing 
their movements with rattles. 

The scene was a brilliant one, the bright-colored cot- 
ton robes, gorgeous feathers, gleaming gold and silver 
ornaments and gay flowers set off by the flowing black 
hair and brown skins of the performers. Some of the 

28 



MANN^EKS A:N^D CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS 

dancers had their faces painted in red, blue, yellow and 
other colors. 

The motions of the dance were continually changing. 
Sometimes the dancers held each other by the hands, 
sometimes by the waist, now one took his left-hand 
neighbor for a partner, now the right. The songs grew 
continually higher and shriller and flutes, trumpets, 
drums and whistles louder. When exhausted dancers 
dropped out, others instantly took their places. So the 
performance continued throughout the whole day. The 
jesters and clowns meanwhile wandered to and fro 
among the crowd, cutting capers and making jokes. 

Axa and Maxtla left the dance after a while to 
watch a drama which was being given in a temple. It 
was a sort of burlesque, in which the actors wore masks 
of wood, or were disguised in skins as animals. They 
imitated animals, beetles, frogs, lizards, birds and but- 
terflies, or ''took off" sick, lame, deaf and blind people, 
or other peculiar characters. This was thought to be 
very funny. Meanwhile the priests blew mud-balls at 
the actors through wooden tubes, or criticized or praised 
the performance audibly. Afterwards, audience and 
actors all joined in a dance. 

In still another part of the Plaza, some Aztec acro- 
bats were giving a performance which was much en- 
joyed by our two boys. A man lying on his back on 
the ground spun on the soles of his feet a heavy pole, 
holding two men, one at each end. A human column^ 

29 



MEXICO 

consisting of a man mounted on tlie shoulders of an- 
other, with a third standing on his head, walked around 
the circle of spectators. Other tricks were performed 
which could compare favorably with our modern cir- 
cuses. 

But the most exciting sport of all was the "Bird 
Dance." In the center of the plaza stood a tall pole, 
around which, a short distance from the top, was built 
a revolving wooden platform. Four long ropes passed 
from the top of the pole, through holes in the outside 
of the platform, and hung several feet below. Four 
acrobats, dressed to imitate birds, climbed up the pole 
by means of little loops of cord, stood on the frame and 
wound the ropes around their waists. Then they 
swung off into space, their weight setting the platform 
in motion, and the cords, as they untwisted, letting 
them sail out ever wider and wider, until they really 
seemed like swallows flying in circles. Meanwhile 
other performers danced, beat drums and waved flags on 
the wooden cap at the top of the pole, and, descending 
the ropes, took the places of the flyers who alighted. 

At another playground the national game of the Az- 
tecs, tlachtlij a kind of football, was being played by 
teams of professionals, with a priest as umpire. They 
played in an alley, one hundred feet long and fifty 
wide; the ball was of solid rubber, and the object 
of the game was to knock it over the wall at the op- 
posite end, or, by great good luck and skill, into a hole 

30 



man:^ees and customs of the aztecs 

just large enough for it, made in a large stone carved 
with images of idols in the center of each of the side 
walls. The players could strike the ball only in a cer- 
tain way agreed upon beforehand, either with the knee, 
elbow or shoulder. Whoever drove the ball through 
one of the holes, not only won the game for his side, 
but also the cloaks of all the spectators, who usually 
dispersed very hastily when this particular play was 
successful, to avoid paying ! 

By the time the boys had enjoyed all these perform- 
ances the day was over, and they went home tired but 
happy. The next day they were to see a most inter- 
esting event, the admittance of one of Maxtla's friends, 
a lad a few years older than he, into the order of Mex- 
ican nobles called Tecuhtli. 

It was no easy thing to become a Tecuhtli, or Knight, 
Axa learned. In the first place, it was necessary to 
have rich parents, who would spend years in collect- 
ing fine garments, jewels and golden ornaments for 
presents to the guests at the required feast. The can- 
didate himself went into training for three years. He 
performed feats of strength and endurance, and learned 
not only to be brave, but patient, with perfect control 
of his will and temper. 

Maxtla described to Axa the feast of the initiation, 
which had taken place a year before. The relatives 
and friends of the candidate went to the temple of the 
war-god, followed by a crowd of spectators. The can- 

31 



MEXICO 

didate, arriving at the temple, climbed to the summit, 
and knelt before the god's altar. The high-priest 
pierced the cartilage of his nose in two places with a 
tiger's bone or eagle's claw, to signify that he must be 
as swift to overtake the enemy as an eagle, and as fierce 
in battle as a tiger, and inserted pieces of jet or obsidian 
in the punctures to remain during the coming year of 
probation, at the end of which they were replaced with 
gold or precious stones. 

Then followed a strange performance. The high- 
priest began to insult the candidate in a loud voice. He 
called him a coward, a good-for-nothing, a contemptible 
creature! The assistant priests crowded around, echo- 
ing the insults. They pointed at the candidate, jostled 
him, jeered at him. 

Maxtla saw his friend's eyes flash. He clenched his. 
hands, and opened his mouth as if he were about to 
fling back the taunts in their faces, to fight them all 
and show them how much of a coward he was! But 
the slight movement passed, and he remained as mo- 
tionless as a bronze statue. In vain the priests re- 
doubled their efforts, and finally, in a paroxysm of ap- 
parent rage and scorn, tore the garments from him one 
by one, until nothing but the maxtli, loin-cloth, re- 
mained on the candidate's bruised body. They could 
not make him speak or lift a finger in his own de- 
fense. Reluctantly they drew away and acknowledged 
that he had met their test successfully. 

32 



MAlSTTsHRKS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS 

If tlie candidate had retaliated in any way, he would 
have gone down from the temple rejected and dis- 
graced, because he had been able to keep his temper 
no better than a woman! All the long months of 
preparation and the money spent by his parents for the 
feast would have been wasted. He would never have 
been made a Knight, and might even have been pun- 
ished for sacrilege. 

But everything had gone well with Maxtla's friend, 
and he was taken to a hall in the temple, to spend four 
days in penance, fasting and praying. He could eat 
only once in twenty-four hours, at midnight, and then 
only four small dumplings, of corn meal, about the size 
of a walnut, and a little water. If he wished to ac- 
quire extra distinction, he would not touch even that. 
During this time he was clothed in the coarsest gar- 
ments, and had to prick himself with thorns of the 
maguey in order to draw blood for purposes of wor- 
ship. Worse still, he could only sleep for a few min- 
utes, or three veteran warriors, who were keeping guard 
over him, would prick him with thorns and cry, 

"Awake, awake ! Learn to be vigilant and watchful ; 
keep your eyes open, that you may look to the inter- 
ests of your vassals." 

At the end of the four days, the candidate went to 
some temple near his own home, to complete his year 
of probation. 

Axa listened to this account with misgivings. He 

33 



MEXICO 

resolved to watcli over his own temper more carefully 
henceforward. He knew of occasions when his con- 
duct would have kept him from ever becoming a 
Knight! 

The young man's probation year was now over, and 
Maxtla and his family and Axa were going to the final 
feast. Arriving early at the spot, they saw the candi- 
date being borne to the temple on a litter, with music 
and dancing. Again he ascended the steps of the tem- 
ple and bowed before the . hideous idol. The priests 
then removed his coarse clothes, and put on others of 
rich material, with a tunic embroidered with the badge 
of his new order. They bound his hair in a tight knot 
with a red cord, in the ends of which were tied bright- 
colored feathers. Arrows- were placed in his right hand, 
in his left a bow. The high priest gave him a short 
address, enumerating his duties, and giving him a name, 
which he was to add to his own to show that he was a 
member of the Order. He finished by commanding 
him to be liberal and just, and to love his country and 
his gods. The ceremony was over, and the proud young 
man went down to his friends, a full-fledged Knight. 
Henceforward he would be treated with especial honor ; 
his opinion would be of great weight, both in war and 
peace. 

A tremendous feast now followed. Axa and Maxtla, 
in common with the other guests, received so many pres- 
ents, that it took two slaves apiece to carry them home ! 

34 



MAlSriTOKS A:N'D customs of the AZTECS 

Erom the accounts of all these festivities, it may be 
thought that Mexican children did nothing but have a 
good time; but this was not the case. Both Axa and 
Maxtla had received a thorough education and train- 
ing, as had all the other young people of their acquaint- 
ance. One of the few Mexican picture-writings now 
existing illustrates the upbringing of young Mexicans. 
As most of us are not as clever as the Aztecs in deci- 
phering picture-writing, however, it needs a little ex- 
planation. The first group is a warning to bad chil- 
dren. At the left the father is punishing his son by 
holding him over the fumes of burning chile, which 
were very disagreeable ; at the right the mother is threat- 
ening her daughter with the same punishment. Prob- 
ably she was not as bad as the boy, so only needed a 
warning ! 

The same unpleasant subject of punishment is dealt 
with in the lower left-hand picture, where the boy is 
compelled to lie down naked on the wet ground, with 
his hands tied. At the right, the girl is being taught 
to sweep; or perhaps she has to sweep, for a punish- 
ment. In the third picture, the boys are having a little 
better time, especially the one in the canoe, who is 
bringing home bundles of wood or reeds; the other boy 
is carrying the same on his back. The girl at the right 
is being taught how to make tortillas. Notice the hol- 
lowed stone (metate), the pestle for grinding the corn, 
and the jar for water. These are common objects in 

35 



MEXICO 



ooooo 

ooooo ^ 




OPOQ 

OOP 06 

J, ooooo 





Mexican Picture-Writings 



36 



MANNEKS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS 

the homes of Mexican Indians. All through these 
sketches the round objects represent the number of tor- 
tillas the child shall have at each meal, while the small 
circles show the age of the children. The balloons com- 
ing out of the figures of course show that they are 
speaking. 

The lower group shows the boy learning, how to fish. 
He looks as if he would enjoy it a great deal more if 
his father left him alone! The girl is learning to 
weave. 

So we know that all was not play in the Aztec house- 
hold. The education that was begun by the parents was 
finished by the priests, who would seem on account of 
the dreadful religious rites that they practiced not to 
have been good instructors, but who really were excellent 
in some things, for they taught the young people to 
be modest and brave, truthful, honest and respectful 
to their elders. The boys were put in charge of the 
priests or began training for the army under an officer 
when they were about fifteen. 

The schools for the common people were called 
telpochcalli, or ^'Houses of the Youths," and there was 
one at least in each quarter of the city, like our public 
schools. Here the priests taught them how to sweep 
out the sanctuary, keep the fire burning in the sacred 
censers, clean the school-house, gather wood, and other 
useful things. They were also trained in arms, and 
how to sing and dance. 

37 



MEXICO 

Youths of noble descent and those who intended to 
become priests went to a college or monastery, where 
they studied history, religion, philosophy, law, astron- 
omy, how to write and decipher the picture-writing, 
songs about heroes, and hymns. 

Some of the girls who desired to be priestesses with- 
drew from .the world when they were twelve or thir- 
teen, and went to live in the inside courts of the great 
temple. They had their hair cut in a peculiar way, 
but after one cutting they let it grow again; they wore 
plain white garments, without the usual Aztec decora- 
tions, and always slept in their clothes, to be ready for 
work in the morning. They worked hard, ate little, 
no meat except on feast days, and were constantly 
watched by the Lady-superior. They danced at the re- 
ligious dances of the festivals, their feet and hands 
adorned with feathers, and their cheeks painted red 
with blood which they drew from their ears. Death 
was the punishment for slight offenses! 

To go back to Axa. In a few days his delightful 
visit was at an end, his parents having sent the serv- 
ants to fetch him in the canoe to their home a few miles 
out of town. On the way home Axa passed the famous 
floating gardens, which were formed of two or three 
feet of black mud from the lake placed on rafts of light 
wood, covered with rushes, reeds or sticks. In these 
gardens all kinds of crops were raised ; and the beauty 
of them was, that they were self -irrigating and could be 

38 



MAN]^EKS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS 

moved anywhere the owner desired, with the aid of 
long poles. They had come into being at the time the 
Aztecs lived on the lake islands, and they are still 
pointed out near Mexico City, only now, owing to the 
receding of the waters, they have grown fast to the bot- 
tom of the lake. 

Axa's home was in a village or ward. All the land 
in this ward was the common property of the villagers, 
but each family held a portion as long as they cultivated 
it. Axa already understood the simple methods of 
farming used by the Aztecs. They irrigated their lands 
by means of ditches. As they had no domestic ani- 
mals, such as oxen, mules or horses, the plowing was 
done by hand with a copper implement made for the 
purpose. The Aztec method of sowing was to take a 
sharp stick, the point of which had been hardened by 
holding it in the fire, make holes in the ground in 
straight rows, and drop a few kernels of corn into each. 
Indian corn was the principal crop, but they also raised 
the useful maguey, and grew fruit trees. 

Sometimes the men of a village or ward went hunt- 
ing with bows and arrows, the game being deer, rab- 
bits, wolves, foxes, jaguars, Mexican lions, coyotes, 
pigeons, partridge, quail and water fowl. They killed 
the small birds by blowing pellets or darts through a 
tube. In the southern provinces, young monkeys were 
caught by spreading corn as bait near a concealed fire, 
in which a kind of black stick was placed which ex- 

89 



MEXICO 

ploded when hot. When this happened, the parent 
monkey was frightened and ran away, leaving the young 
ones to be caught. Crocodile hunting was good sport, 
the animals being captured by a sort of lasso or a 
sharp, barbed stick thrust in their mouths. Fishing 
was a constant occupation of the Aztecs. 

One of the great events of Axa's childhood was the 
solemn ceremony of the end of the cycle. This«time, 
which occurred only every fifty-two years, and which 
happened to come when he was a very young boy, he 
remembered distinctly. His parents and friends had 
all been greatly depressed. They feared that some 
great calamity was going to happen. When the .five 
unlucky days at the end of the year arrived, they gave 
themselves up to despair, broke in pieces the images 
of their little household gods, allowed the fires in their 
houses and even in the temples to go out, and destroyed 
everything they possessed, including all their garments 
except those they were wearing. 

On the evening of the fifth day Axa remembered 
forming part of a weird procession. Clinging to his 
mother's hand, he, with many others, wended their way 
towards a hill near the City of Tenochtitlan, which was 
dark and quiet, though crowded with people. Every 
one was looking anxiously at the sky, blazing with the 
great, bright, tropic stars, to see when the constella- 
tion of the Pleiades would reach its highest point, for 
then it would be midnight. The hour came. Sud- 

40 



MANEIERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS 

denly the darkness of the hill-top was pierced by a 
feeble, flickering light, which showed for an instant 
the figure of a priest, who was rubbing two sticks to- 
gether to produce it. Other priests were hovering over 
a stone of sacrifice. The multitude held their breaths. 
The spark of light grew brighter and bigger. Flames 
leaped into the air. Then a great sigh of relief went 
up from the waiting throng, who pressed forward to 
the sacred fire to light their torches by which, in turn, 
they would rekindle the cold hearth at home. The ris- 
ing of the sun still further reassured them. Another 
cycle had begun! Eagerly they returned to their 
homes, to begin a great orgy of house-cleaning, putting 
on of new garments, feasting, dancing, singing and re- 
ligious services at the temples. 

The last celebration of this festival, the one in which 
Axa took part, occurred in the year 1506. The omena 
were not quite correct, for before a half of the cycle had 
passed, great reverses came upon the Mexicans, and 
their beautiful city fell into the hands of strangers. 
We will leave Axa here, hoping that he escaped the 
worst sufferings of the Conquest, and that he lived to 
be happy under the Spanish regime. 



CHAPTEK lY 
EAELY SPANISH EXPLORATIONS 

"DowK from Cuba Island, in this sea of the west, my 
heart tells me there must be rich lands; because when 
J sailed as a boy with the old admiral, I remember 
he inclined that way." 

It was Antonio de Alaminos who spoke thus to eager 
Spaniards, in the streets and houses of the Cuban, set- 
tlements. Cuba was a disappointment to the Span- 
iards; it was lacking in gold and pearls; and their 
thoughts turned longingly to the unknown west, with its 
possible riches. Vasco JSTuiiez de Balboa had discov- 
ered the Pacific and the lands in the neighborhood of 
Darien, but what lay north was undiscovered. Antonio 
de Alaminos, who had sailed with the "old admiral,'^ 
Columbus, and had ideas of his own on exploration, 
found ready listeners. 

A company of one hundred and ten gentlemen, sol- 
diers and other adventurers who had come from Spain 
and were disappointed in the riches the West Indies 
had yielded them, gathered in Cuba and determined to 
set out on an exploring expedition towards the West. 

42 



EAELY SPANISH EXPLOKATIOlSrS 

They chose Hernandez de Cordoba as their captain, 
and the hopeful Alaminos their pilot. Among the voy- 
agers was a brave, simple soldier, Bernal Diaz del Cas- 
tillo, who has left us an account of the Conquest. 

There were three ships in Cordoba's expedition, and 
they left Cuba on the eighth of February, 1517, pro- 
vided with cassava bread, pigs, glass beads and trinkets 
for barter, and, in order that their squadron might 
"not want for anything really useful,''' as the old chron- 
icle explains, a priest. Glory as well as gold beck- 
oned the adventurers westward. They longed to dis- 
cover new countries for Spain, and to win the heathen 
of these countries to the Christian religion. They were 
a daring and gallant lot, and, though gold-hungry, not 
unprincipled. Diego Velasquez, the Governor of Cuba, 
ordered them to bring back slaves from some islands 
between Cuba and Honduras, but they declared with 
spirit that "neither God nor the King had commanded 
them to turn a free people into slaves !" 

They sailed west, and presently sighted land — a 
small island off the point of Yucutan. They gave it 
the name of Las Mugeres (Woman's Island) because 
they found some images of female deities in a tem- 
ple. Beyond, on the main land, they saw the towers 
and houses of a good-sized town, which they named 
Grand Cairo. The houses were built of stone and lime, 
and when the Spaniards landed they found golden 
ornaments in the temples. 

43 



MEXICO 

Indians met theni, repeating the words "con esco- 
toch/' an invitation to come with them, but the Span- 
iards thought it the name of the country, so gave the 
promontory they were on the name of Point de Cotoche, 
which it hears to-day. The Indians proving un- 
friendly, the Spaniards captured two and took to their 
ships and again sailed westward. 

Their next landing-place was the Bay of Cam- 
peachy, where some natives inquired by signs if they 
came from the east, and repeated the word "Castilan," 
the name of a Spanish province. Here were temples 
with fresh blood stains about the altars, and native 
priests, in long, flowing robes, with long hair matted 
together with blood, who came out to meet the Spaniards 
burning incense, as if for gods. But when the Span- 
iards waved away the pans of incense, the Indians 
took offense and began beating their drums and blow- 
ing on their pipes and twisted shells a sort of war- 
music, and the Spaniards, still sore from their wounds 
in the recent skirmish, hurriedly made for their ships. 

They sailed on again, excited beyond measure by the 
mysteries of this land, with its houses and temples of 
cut stone, its gold, and its blood-stained altars. But 
their fresh water began to fail, and when they landed 
to get more the Indians attacked them, carried off two 
and wounded many. The Spaniards hurriedly gained 
their ships and set sail for Cuba. On the way the sail- 
ors suffered so from thirst that they held the cold steel 



EAKLY SPANISH EXPLOKATIONS 

edges of their axes between their swollen lips to cool 
them. They got water at Florida and reached Havana 
safely. Ten days later Cordoba, the captain, died from 
his wounds. 

"Oh, what a fearful undertaking it is to venture out 
on the discovery of new countries, and place one's life 
in danger, as we were obliged to do," exclaims Bernal 
Diaz. I imagine that we would agree with him, if 
we could transport ourselves back through the cen- 
turies to those old sailing-ships, with their cramped 
quarters and rough, scanty food, their motley com- 
panies of desperadoes and adventurers. 

"In this beautiful voyage of discovery," he goes on 
to say, sarcastically, "we had spent our all, and re- 
turned to Cuba covered with wounds, and as poor as 
beggars." Yet the lure held, and the next year he was 
ready to try his luck again. 

The returned voyagers created a great sensation in 
Cuba. The covetous soul of the Governor, Velasquez, 
was delighted with the "crowns, golden ducks, fish and 
idols" from the heathen temples. He questioned the 
two (Indian captives, who gave him to understand that 
there was much gold-dust in their country. "They told 
an untruth," says Bernal Diaz, "there are no gold mines 
on the Punta de Cotoche nor even in all of Yucatan." 
However, the Spaniards were eager to believe. Dur- 
ing the conversation between the Governor and the na- 
tives, the natives, being shown a yucca root, exclaimed 

45 



MEXICO 

tale. The Spaniards, hearing the two words, said, 
"You see, they call their country Yucatan." In this 
way the country received its name. 

All the conversation of Cuba turned now on the new 
country of Yucatan, and the fame of the expedition 
spread even to Spain, where people indulged in many 
theories as to who were these strange people who built 
stone houses and worshiped hideous idols. Some 
learned ones declared that they must be the Jews who, 
driven out of Jerusalem under the Emperor Vespasian, 
might have sailed west, been shipwrecked and finally 
landed on this foreign coast. 

Velasquez determined to send out another expedi- 
tion. Cordoba being dead, Juan de Grijalva, a chiv- 
alrous young Spaniard, a nephew of the Governor's, 
was chosen for the leader. In charge of one of the 
vessels was Pedro de Alvarado, a handsome, golden- 
haired Spaniard. There were three other ships, under 
various captains. Bernal Diaz was of the company. 
It was like our gold rush to California in 1849 — there 
was no trouble in getting recruits. Two hundred and 
twenty men were easily selected. They sailed on May 
1, 1518. 

They steered a little farther south than before, and 
touched land first at the island of Cozumel, and then 
at the coast of Champoton. After a skirmish in which 
they beat oif the natives who attacked them, they sailed 
along the coast, reaching in June the large river Ta- 

46 



EAKLY SPANISH EXPLOKATIOISrS 

basco. Here were manj natives. The Spaniards sent 
their two Yucatan captives to treat with them, and, 
finding them friendly, they all landed, and began a 
merry trade of blue glass beads, small mirrors and imi- 
tation corals in exchange for broiled fish, fowls, fruit, 
maize-bread and small golden ornaments furnished by 
the natives. The Indians said they had little gold, but 
that further on towards the setting of the sun there was 
a country where it was found in great abundance. The 
name of the country was Culhua or Mexico. These 
magic syllables as yet meant nothing to the Spaniards. 

The Spaniards set sail again, and now they saw for 
the first time the snowy peaks of the Sierra ITevadas 
in Mexico. Stationed at the mouth of a large river 
were men with banners, messengers from Montezuma, 
who had heard at once of the second arrival of the Fair 
God's descendants on the southern shore. The Span- 
iards landed, and were propitiated with gold, accord- 
ing to Montezuma's orders. Poor Montezuma ! He 
did not know that each piece of gold that he sent these 
greedy "gods" was a nail in his own coffin ! The Span- 
iards calmly took possession of the country here in 
the name of "His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor 
Charles Y." 

As soon as the gold supply gave out, they went away 
from there, landing some time later on an island out- 
side what is now the harbor of Yera Cruz, which they 
called San Juan de Ulua. One of the ships now sailed 

47 



MEXICO 

straight for Cuba, while the others took a more round- 
about way. They all reached Cuba finally, but Gri- 
jalva found himself in disgrace with his uncle the Gov- 
ernor, who had been prejudiced against him by one 
of the first captains to reach home. 

Velasquez was already looking about for some one to 
command another expedition to the new country. Be- 
ing displeased with his nephew, his choice fell upon a 
magistrate of Santiago, a high-spirited gallant who had 
got in numerous scrapes in Cuba, but had also man- 
aged to distinguish himself and gain lands and gold. 
The name of this man was Feknando Coktes. 



CHAPTEE V 

THE BOY WHO WAS BORN TO ADVENTURE- 
FERNANDO CORTES 

There are boys who are bom to adventure as the 
sparks fly upward ! Such a one was the boy Fernando 
Cortes, born in the village of Medellin, in the Spanish 
province of Estremadura, in 1485. He was seven 
years old, a sickly youngster, when Columbus was dis- 
covering America. 'No one would have prophesied that 
he would live to undergo the most extraordinary hard- 
ships in the New World. His parents were quite in 
despair about him, in fact, thinking he would never 
live to grow up. They drew lots as to which of the 
Twelve Apostles should be his patron saint; and when 
St. Peter was chosen in this way, both they and the 
boy were quite convinced that he helped him to grow 
strong and well. 

Even St. Peter, however, could not make him meek 
and obedient. When Fernando was fourteen, his par- 
ents sent him to the University of Salamanca, the finest 
in all Europe, to study law. The boy stayed there for 
two years, but at the end of that time he turned up 

49 



MEXICO 

at Lome again. He liad had enough of college. Noth- 
ing that his parents could say or do would make him ^ 
consent to be a lawyer. His tastes were all for action 
and adventure. Being now idle, and full of superflu- 
ous energy, he fell into one scrape after another, so 
that his family was finally glad to allow him to enlist 
in a great expedition which was sailing for the West 
Indies under Ovando. The night before he sailed, 
Cortes got into trouble again. He was skylarking 
about town when he fell from a wall and hurt his knee, 
and was nearly run through the body into the bargain 
by an irate gentleman on whose premises he was tres- 
passing. If it had not been for an old woman who 
rushed out of her house at hearing the disturbance and 
interceded for him, he might never have lived to see 
Mexico. He was badly bruised enough as it was to 
prevent him from sailing with the West Indies expe- 
dition. 

His next thought was to go to [N'aples to serve under 
the famous Captain, Gonzalvo de Cordoba. He started, 
but only got part way; his money gave out, and after 
a year of hardship he turned up like a bad penny in 
Medellin. 

His parents were desperate by now, and glad to give 
him money to carry out his first intention of going to 
the West Indies. He sailed in 1504, in a little trading- 
vessel, his ship reaching the port of Santo Domingo 
safely four days after Easter. 

60 



PERNAISTDO COETES 

Young Cortes went at once to the Governor's house. 
The Governor was away, but his secretary was there 
and proved to be an old friend of his. 

"Register yourself a citizen/' said the latter, "prom- 
ise not to leave the island for five years, and you shall 
have lands and pCndians ; after the expiration of your 
time you may go where you choose." 

"I want gold, not work," replied Cortes, "and neither 
in this island nor in any other place will I promise 
to remain so long." 

The restless young man soon found occupation in 
helping to quell revolts among the Indians of the Is- 
lands, and in this way came under the notice of the 
Governor, Velasquez. He was given a piece of land 
with Indians to work it, this being the oppressive cus- 
tom of those times. Such lands were called encomievr 
das. Under Velasquez, he helped to conquer Cuba in 
1511; an easy task, since the natives were too poor- 
spirited to offer much resistance. He was given more 
land and Indians here, and began to grow rich, gaining 
a fortune of several thousand castellanos. "God will 
have kept a better account than I, of the lives it cost," 
wrote the good Bishop Las Casas, called the "Protector 
of the Indians," whose standard of humanity in such 
matters was far ahead of his age, and who was sad- 
dened by seeing the natives die off like flies under Span- 
ish rule. Cortes was not cruel according to Spanish 
ideas of that time. 

51 



MEXICO 

Meanwliile, all was not smooth sailing witli Cortes. 
He had gained the favor of the governor by his brav- 
ery, his good manners and genial spirit; he was soon 
to lose it by rash conduct. Cortes was certainly a la- 
dies' man; indeed, he was altogether too fond of flirta- 
tion. About that time there came to West Indies from 
Spain four beautiful sisters, in the suite of the wife of 
the Viceroy, Maria de Toledo. Every one knew they 
had come with the idea of getting married. They went 
first to Santo Domingo, but somehow the right suitors 
did not turn up there, so they tried Cuba. They were 
very pretty, but the prettiest of all was Donna Catalina. 
Cortes began paying her attention. Things went so 
far that she promised to marry him, when suddenly 
Cortes grew cold and wished to break the engagement. 
[En the meantime the Governor Velasquez had fallen in 
love with another sister, who persuaded him to bring 
the faithless suitor to terms. Velasquez sent for Cor- 
tes and told him he must marry Donna Catalina with- 
out delay. 

Cortes did not relish being dictated to in such a per- 
sonal matter. He declined. The governor ^thereupon 
clapped him in prison. Cortes escaped, carrying ojff 
with him the sword and buckler of his jailer, and took 
refuge in a church. One day, however, he was heed- 
less enough to step outside for a minute, when the mag- 
istrate and others seized him and carried him on board 
a ship lying in the harbor. Cortes escaped, dressed 

62 



FEKI^AIJ^DO COETES 

in servant's clothes. On the way, the small boat he was 
in capsized, and he swam to shore, with some valuable 
papers tied in a packet on the top of his head. He 
took refuge in his partner's house, who was the brother 
of the lady who had caused all the trouble. The partner 
did not appear to share in his sister's quarrel, for he 
gave Cortes clothes and arms, and the latter again took 
refuge in the church. Velasquez decided to forgive 
him, and sent mutual friends to make peace. 

The amusing part of the story is, that now that he 
was no longer obliged to marry Donna Catalina, Cortes 
decided to do so, and told Bishop Las Casas afterwards 
that he lived as happily with her as if she had been a 
duchess. 

He may have lived with her happily, but he did not 
do so long. And it would seem, on the whole, that he 
was far from a perfect husband. Explorers and con- 
querors are, one imagines, seldom extremely satisfac- 
tory in domestic life, and poor Donna Catalina, left 
behind when her husband went to Mexico, and greeted 
but coldly when she went to meet him there, may have 
been sorry that she ever held him to his promise. But 
this is enough of the romance that was not much of a 
romance after all. 

Other historians have it that the reason Cortes and 
the governor fell out was because Cortes was detected 
carrying accusations against Velasquez to some judges 
from Spain, who had recently arrived in Hayti. This 

53 



MEXICO 

was, of course, rank treason in the governor's eyes, and 
he is said to have nearly hanged Cortes on the spot. 
Friends interceded, and Cortes was spared, but hum- 
bled. 

"I saw Cortes in those days so small and humble that 
he would have craved the notice of the meanest servant 
of Velasquez," Bishop Las Casas has recorded. 

Velasquez was a man whose moods were uncertain, 
and whose anger lasted no longer than his good-will. 
It was after the quarrel that he appointed Cortes mag- 
istrate, and stood godfather to one of his children. 
Cortes would now have been very well off, except that 
neither he nor the pretty Donna Catalina was econom- 
ical, but each spent money as fast as it came in. 

This was the man whom the governor, in spite of 
previous differences, appointed as commander of the 
new expedition. Cortes was of medium height, well- 
built, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, good-look- 
ing, except for a rather sallow complexion, with eyes 
that were ordinarily full of kindness, but could dart 
lightnings of wrath upon occasion. His poise was per- 
fect. He was usually cheerful and good-humored, but 
when he did lose his temper, he lost it to good purpose, 
and there were none who dared offend him a second 
time. He dressed in good taste, plainly but richly. 
He ordered his house well, and loved to entertain ; espe- 
cially scholars and soldiers; with the first he talked 
the Latin he had learned at Salamanca, and even re- 

54 



FEKl^ANDO COKTES 

cited poetry to them of his own composition; with his 
comrades in arms, he exchanged stories and jokes. He 
had most winning manners, and was popular with both 
men and women. Above all, he was devout. This man, 
whose high spirits got him into so many scrapes, knew 
many prayers and psalms by heart, went to church 
every day, besides saying morning prayers, and would 
undoubtedly have died in defense of his religion, though 
he did not always live in accordance with its laws. It 
is hard for us nowadays to understand the religion of 
the Spaniards of the sixteenth century, but it was very 
teal to them, and in Cortes' life especially was a fac- 
tor which must not be forgotten when we come to the 
story of the Conquest. In general, it must be remem- 
bered that the Spaniards were determined to save souls 
if they had to massacre bodies by the thousands to do 
it! They saw no incongruity in the two actions. The 
twentieth century, with its wars in which human life 
is sacrificed on a scale the Spaniards never dreamed 
of, is in no condition to judge them too hastily. 

This expedition was the chance for which Cortes had 
been longing. He threw himself heart and soul into 
the preparations, and staked everything he possessed 
on the venture, raising loans by means of mortgages 
on his property. He naturally felt himself a person 
of increased consequence, and acted accordingly, wear- 
ing for the first time a bunch of feathers in his cap and 
a gold necklace and medal, "which gave him a ver^ 

55 



MEXICO 

stately appearance/' says honest Bernal Diaz. With 
part of his loans he bought "a state robe with golden 
trains, ensigns bearing the arms of our sovereign the 
king, beneath this a Latin inscription, the meaning of 
which was, ^Brothers, let us in true faith follow the 
Cross, and the victory is ours !' " 

Human nature being what it is, this behavior in- 
creased the disapproval of those who were already dis- 
pleased with Cortes' appointment. The anti-Cortes 
party grew more active and influenced the governor's 
jester to play upon the governor's fears by prophecies, 
uttered as foolish jests, but suspected to be barbed with 
meaning. 

'Well-a-day, friend Diego," said this licensed char- 
acter, meeting Velasquez and his train, with Cortes at 
his right side, one day in the road, ''what manner of 
a captain-general have you appointed ? He of Medellin 
and Estremadura ! A captain who wants to try his 
fortune in no small way. I am afraid he will cut his 
sticks for your whole squadron; for he is a terrible 
fellow when he once begins, this you may read in his 
countenance." 

^'Begone, you drunken fool," cried a friend of Cor- 
tes, as the jester grew even more reckless in his re- 
marks. "Some one has put you up to saying these 
things !" 

The jester took no notice of the words, even though 
they were accompanied by a blow at his head. 

56 




Feenaistdo Cortes. 



FEENANDO COKTES 

"Long live my friend Diego and the bold captain 
Cortes !" he cried. "Upon my life, master Diego, I 
must really go myself with Cortes to those rich coun- 
tries, in order that you may not repent of the bargain 
you have made!" 

Thp governor turned red and looked uneasy, but Cor- 
tes kept his usual calmness. He knew, as did the oth- 
ers in the company, that the jester had been coached 
by his enemies. In spite of their source, the insinua- 
tions rankled in the governor's mind, until he finally 
decided to remove Cortes from the commandership and 
give it to one Yasco Porcallo instead. 

Cortes heard of this decision through his friends, 
the men who had urged the governor to appoint him. 
He hurried his preparations, got his stores and his men 
on board his ships, said good-by to the governor, who 
had not quite got to the point of carrying out his in- 
tentions, and sailed away. Before doing so, he had 
seized the entire meat supply of the town, paying for 
it with the gold chain from his neck. 

The fleet stopped at Macaca, Trinidad and Havana. 
At each place they procured fresh stores, mostly cas- 
sava-bread and bacon, and new recruits, some of them 
persons of distinction, such as the Alvarados, Pedro 
and Juan, Alonso do Avila, who had had command of 
one of the ships in Grijalva's expedition, Christobal 
de Oli, Gonjalo de Sandoval, and Francisco de Mon- 
tejo. 

5T 



MEXICO 

Meanwhile the governor, a man distinctly of second 
thoughts, was becoming more and more uneasy. His 
friends left him not a minute's peace. They told him 
that Cortes was too fond of power and would not act ac- 
cording to the governor's interests. A half-witted as- 
trologer prophesied that Cortes would now revenge him- 
self on Velasquez for being put in prison. "Sly and 
artful as he is, he will be the means of ruining you, 
if you are not upon your guard." 

Finally Velasquez distractedly sent two messengers 
to Trinidad with private instructions to the magistrate, 
who happened to be his brother-in-law, to deprive Cor- 
tes of the command and give it to Vasco Porcallo. He 
also wrote letters to friends of his in the squadron, ask- 
ing them to leave. 

What was his disgust to hear presently that Cortes 
had become so popular with the officers and soldiers 
that none would leave him, and especially not the gov- 
ernor's own friends, that the magistrate of Trinidad 
had not even attempted to carry out his orders, that 
the very messengers he had sent with his instructions 
were joining the fleet! The only notice, in fact, that 
was taken of Velasquez' communications was a letter 
from Cortes, all the more maddening to the governor 
because it was written in the most friendly terms, ex- 
pressing his ^'utter astonishment at the resolution he 
had taken," and assuring Velasquez that he, Cortes, 

58 



TEENAJSTDO COETES 

"had no other design than to serve God, his majesty the 
King, and the governor." 

At Havana, Cortes' company procured sixteen horses,; 
animals which, figuring in the imagination of the na- 
tives as gods, were to play an important part in the 
conquest. Bemal Diaz describes each of them as mi- 
nutely as he does the principal men of the company. 
The fleet set sail, in spite of another frantic attempt 
on the part of the governor to stop them, on February 
18, 1519. They steered for the island of Cozumel. 



CHAPTER YI 

CORTES GAINS A FOOTHOLD ON THE MEXICAN 

COAST 

Upon landing at Cozumel, Cortes took pains to reas- 
sure the natives through the interpreter whom he had 
brought with him, one of the two Indians captured dur- 
ing the previous expedition. The dark-skinned inhabi- 
tants soon gathered on the shore, to watch Cortes re- 
view his troops, whom he addressed ^'in words of fire," 
reminding them of their great mission to bring the 
True Faith to these barbarians and to conquer their 
lands in the name of God and the Spanish king. 

"Be true to me, as I am to you," he concluded, "and 
I will reward you with wealth such as you have never 
dreamed of!" 

He had struck the right note for those gold-seeking 
dare-devils, and they cheered him to the echo. All 
eyes turned proudly to their banner, floating in the soft 
breeze from the Gulf. It was of taffeta silk, showing 
a red cross on a black ground, sprinkled with blue and 
white flames; and on it was the motto (as freely trans- 
lated), 

60 



COKTES GAINS A FOOTHOLD 

"Let us follow the Cross, and in that sign we shall conquer." 

Cortes had a special errand at Cozumel. He had 
heard of the Indians' repeating the word "Castilan" at 
the time of the last expedition, and thought it might 
mean there were Spaniards among them. Melchior, the 
interpreter, inquired and was told that there were sev- 
eral Spaniards some distance inland. Cortes at once 
sent an expedition to find them, and also gave some 
Indian messengers a letter. The expedition returned, 
unsuccessful ; and the fleet now sailed awaj from Cozu- 
mel. 

Just after they had gone, a man as dark of com- 
plexion as any native, with only a few rags of cloth- 
ing, emerged from the woods upon the heach, and cried 
out with despair in Spanish when he found the ships 
gone. But presently, to his joy, he saw them return- 
ing. He hurriedly bribed Indian canoemen with some 
glass beads to paddle him with all haste towards Cozu- 
mel. The Spaniards, who had returned on account of 
a leak in one of the ships, spied the canoe, and Cortes 
sent Andreas de Tapia to learn its errand. The In- 
dians landed on the island, and a man, to all appear- 
ance one of them, rushed towards Tapia as if to em- 
brace him, exclaiming, in broken Spanish, 

"Are you Christians ? Who is your king V 

Andreas stared at the stranger. The latter's face 
was black with tan; his hair was shorn like that of 
an Indian slave; he carried a paddle across his 

61 



MEXICO 

shoulders, his clothing was sketchy in the extreme, con- 
sisting of a cloak all in rags; but in one corner of it 
was carefully folded a prayer-book! He was a 
Spaniard! 

Brought before Cortes, he cowered in the servile In- 
dian manner he had acquired during his captivity, and, 
in answer to the astonished question, ^ 'Where is the 
Spaniard ?" answered, humbly, "I am he." 

Cortes was overjoyed. He saw that the man would 
be useful to him, and ordered him clothed like a Chris- 
tian once more. 

The Spaniard, whose name was Geronimo de Aguilar, 
had been shipwrecked about eight years before, while 
crossing with a small party fronj Darien to San Do- 
mingo. They had been cast on the shore of Yucatan, 
where the Mayas took them prisoner. Most of the 
Spaniards had been sacrificed at once to the Maya 
gods, a few died of hardship, and the rest were put in 
cages to fatten for the sacrifice. Aguilar managed to 
escape, and fled to a chief, who protected him. One 
other Spaniard besides himself also survived. His name 
was Guerrero. 

When Aguilar received Cortes' letter, together with 
the beads for ransom, which had been faithfully de- 
livered by the Jndian messenger, he was overcome with 
joy, obtained his freedom at once from his chief, and 
went off to tell Guerrero the good news. Guerrero 
heard it with mixed emotions. He had married an 

62 



COETES GAIN'S A FOOTHOLD 

Indian woman, had several Indian children, and looked 
by this time exactly like a native, his cheeks tattooed, 
his ears and lips pierced with gold and copper rings. 
He was a very strong man, and on this account had 
been made a chief. 

"Go! and may God be with you!" he told Aguilar. 
"For myself, I could not appear again among my coun- 
trymen. My face has already been disfigured, and my 
ears pierced; what would my countrymen say? Only 
look at my children, what lovely little creatures they 
are; pray give me some of your glass beads for them, 
which I shall say my brothers sent them from my 
country." 

Guerrero's Indian wife, with a flash of black eyes 
and a scowl on her swarthy countenance, added her 
shrill remonstrances. 

"You slave! You have come to take my husband 
away from me! Mind your own affairs, and let us 
alone !" 

So Aguilar left this happy family with a clear con- 
science, and hurried to the sea-shore, only to find that 
the fleet had sailed away! Imagine his despair, and 
then his relief when the lucky leak brought them back 
again. 

The fleet once more left Cozumel, and sailed along 
the coast as Cordoba's expedition had done. At the 
Tabasco River they found the natives unfriendly, in 
spite of the fact that Cortes caused to be read to them 

63 



MEXICO 

by a notary a long speech in Spanish (of which they 
naturally understood not a word), explaining that they 
were all descended from Adam and Eve, and in 
charge of St. Peter, whose representative, the Pope, 
had given the dominion in America to the Spanish king ! 

In reply, the natives let fly their bows and arrows 
and brandished their clubs and notched swords, in an 
attempt to keep the Spaniards from landing. The lat- 
ter beat them off, and landed. Cortes took formal pos- 
session of the country for his sovereign, drawing his 
sword and making two deep cuts in a large tree which 
grew in the court of the principal temple, crying out 
that he would defend the possession of this country 
with sword and shield against any one who should dare 
to dispute it. 

The next morning the Indians attacked the Spaniards 
in great numbers. The native warriors wore feathers 
in their hair, quilted cotton armor, and paint on their 
faces. Their weapons were huge bows and arrows, 
shields, lances, and the swords made of obsidian 
mounted in wood. They showed great bravery, rush- 
ing upon the invaders ^'like furious dogs," and were 
not even daunted by the Spanish musketry and cannon. 
But their courage failed them when Cortes with six- 
teen horsemen swept up on them from behind a wood. 
The horses, which seemed all of a piece with their rid- 
ers, appeared to the poor natives like strange and ir- 
resistible gods. Their flashing eyes, pawing hoofs, and 

64 



COETES GAINS A FOOTHOLD 

quick movements struck terror to their hearts, and 
they broke ranks and fled. 

It was during this fight that the Spaniards are said 
by some historians to have seen either St. James, the 
patron of Spain, or St. Peter, Cortes' patron, mounted 
on a gray horse, fighting for them on the battle-field. 
Bernal Diaz, however, denies this interesting rumor. 

"Perhaps on account of my sins ,1 was not consid- 
ered worthy of the good fortune to behold them," he 
says, "for I could only see Francisco de Morla on his 
brown horse galloping up with Cortes . . . and yet 
again I never heard any of the four hundred soldiers, 
nor ever Cortes himself, nor any of the many cava- 
liers, mention this wonder, or confirm its truth." 

At any rate, whether with supernatural aid or not, 
the battle of Ceutla was won; and the chiefs came for- 
ward, pledging submission to Cortes and his King, and 
bringing presents of food, golden trinkets, and cloth- 
ing. Cortes received them graciously, but still fur- 
ther to awe the natives, ordered the cannon fired. 
When the Indians heard the noise like a clap of thun- 
der, and saw the ball whizzing among the hills, their 
subjection was complete. Chiefs from further inland 
came to pay tribute. Cortes, through Aguilar, tried to 
tell them something of the Christian religion, and 
showed them an image of the Virgin Mary with the 
Child in her arms. The chiefs answered that they 
were much pleased with this "woman of distinction," 

65 



MEXICO 

and that they would like to keep her in their village. 
Cortes gave them the figure with an altar, and a wooden 
cross, a familiar symhol to the Indians, who associated 
it with the God of Rain. 

The chiefs, when asked where they got their gold, 
answered, "From the country towards the setting of 
the sun," and repeated the words, Culhua, and Mex- 
ico. 

Before the Spaniards left, the chiefs of Tabasco 
presented them with twenty young women as slaves. 
One of these was a very bright-looking, pretty girl, 
named Marina. Aside from her looks and her clever- 
ness, there was something about Marina which marked 
her as a person of distinction, even though she came 
to them in such a humble capacity. Indeed, Marina 
had a story not unbefitting a heroine; for heroine she 
proved to be — tJie heroine of the Conquest. 

Some years before, a daughter had been born to the 
chief of one of the coast provinces. When the princess, 
as we may call her, was still but a tiny girl, her father 
died, and her mother married again. As so often hap- 
pens in fairy-stories, the princess was neglected in fa- 
vor of a little half-brother who was born to the new 
couple. And one night she was actually spirited away, 
by order of her heartless mother, and placed with a 
poor family in the province of Xicalango, and it was 
given out that she was dead. 

The people with whom she had been placed disposed 



COKTES GAII^S A FOOTHOLD 

of her as a slave to the Tabascans, who presently gave 
her, now full-grown and beautiful and clever and spir- 
ited, in spite of her misfortunes, to Cortes. She fell 
in love with Cortes, and, becoming a Christian her- 
self, worked for the Christians with heart and soul. 
Cortes soon found her of the greatest value as an in- 
terpreter and general pacifier. She spoke the Tabascan 
language, which was the same as that of Yucatan, which 
Aguilar understood. She also spoke Mexican, the lan- 
guage of her native province. 

The Spaniards now took ship and continued their 
journey, reaching the harb.or of San Juan de Ulua on 
Thursday of Holy Week, the twenty-first of April. 

The next day, Good Friday, they landed and pitched 
their camp on the low and sandy coast. The Indians 
were very friendly and helped them in every way. The 
insects, of which there were all possible varieties, were 
not at all friendly, but stung and bit the invaders until 
they were almost frantic. 

0n Easter Sunday some embassadors from Monte- 
zuma, including Teutlili, the governor of this coast 
province, arrived, followed by a great number of In- 
dians. Cortes, through the interpreters, told them that 
he had come from the greatest monarch in the world, 
the Spanish king, with a message to their monarch, of 
whom his king had long since heard. Where did the 
Mexican king live, that the embassy might go at once 
and pay their respects to him? 

67 



MEXICO 

Teutlili answered rather sharply, 

"Since you are but just arrived, it would be more 
fitting that you, before desiring an interview with my 
monarch, should accept this present, which we have 
brought you in his name, and disclose your wishes to 
me." 

He then gave Cortes some very beautiful gold 
trinkets and feather-embroidered garments. 

In exchange for these gifts of real value, Cortes pre- 
sented him with an armchair, carved and painted, a 
scarlet cap with a medal representing St. George kill- 
ing the dragon, some imitation jewels and glass beads. 

During the interview, the Aztec painters, forerun- 
ners of our movie camera-men, were busy sketching on 
maguey paper Cortes and all the officers, Marina and 
Aguilar the interpreters, the dogs, the fire-arms, the 
horses — everything of interest. Cortes arranged a 
show for their benefit. He ordered the cavaliers to 
mount their horses and gallop two by two, at full speed, 
on the firm wet sand; the cannon was fired, and the 
stone ball rolled with a terrible sound amon^ the sand- 
hills. All this the startled painters faithfully depicted. 

The Indian governor noticed a helmet worn by one 
of the soldiers and asked if he might take it to Monte- 
zuma, since it resembled one on the statue of their war- 
god Huitzilopochtli. Cortes gave it to him at once, but 
marred his generosity somewhat by asking to have it 

68 



COKTES GAINS A FOOTHOLD 

returned full of gold-dust! The embassy then took 
its leave. 

When they reached Tenochtitlan and told their news, 
Montezuma's perplexity increased. He looked at the 
helmet, so like the one worn by their war-god, and was 
almost convinced that the newcomers were of divine 
origin, ff that were so, it was useless to oppose them; 
but if they were men, he reasoned, they could easily be 
crushed after they got into the country. Therefore, 
to be on the safe side, he sent word for every honor to 
be shown the strangers, and everything they wished to 
be given them. At the same time, he ordered his ma- 
gicians to go to the coast and try to dispel the invad- 
ers by their incantations. The latter obeyed, but, 
strange to say, their magic was of no avail. When 
they returned and told the king this, it was another 
proof to him that the strangers were divine. 

The allied kings and nobles, who were continually 
meeting in council, were as divided in mind as their 
chief. One only, Cuitlahuac, lord of Itztapalapan, was 
for crushing the invaders instantly, before they could 
do any harm. 

"It seems to me, my lord, that you should not admit 
to your house one who will drive you out of it,'' he 
urged, prophetically. Montezuma paid attention to this 
wise counsel only by trying again to discourage the 
strangers from coming further. He sent Teutlili back 
with gorgeous gifts for the Spaniards: a round gold 

69 



MEXICO 

plate about the size of a wagon-wheel, beautifully 
worked to represent the sun, a "moon" of silver, even 
larger than the sun, a number of beautiful small golden 
ornaments, lockets and chains, etc., more cotton and 
featherwork, and lastly, the helmet filled with gold- 
dust. "This," says the native historian, Torquemada, 
"cost him his life!" 

With the gifts came a message. Montezuma was de- 
lighted, he declared, with the arrival of such courageous 
men in his country. He wished very much to see their 
great emperor, of whom he had already heard. (Artful 
Montezuma, he was no child in diplomacy himself!) 
He sent him these presents. He would be glad to fur- 
nish the emperor's representatives with whatever they 
needed during their stay; but as for Cortes calling 
upon him, he had better give up all thought of it, as it 
was not necessary, and would be found very difficult. 

You have heard the old conundrum about what would 
happen if an irresistible force met an immovable body ? 
It would be interesting also to wonder what messages 
would be exchanged if the irresistible force and the 
immovable body were both pastmasters in the art of 
diplomacy, and talked it all over before the conflict. 
One could almost tell what those messages would be 
by reading those which passed between Montezuma and 
Cortes. 

Cortes replied that the Emperor Charles of Spain 
would be extremely displeased if, after his ambassa- 

70 



COETES GAINS A FOOTHOLD 

dors had come from such distant countries and crossed 
such vast seas, they should go home without paying their 
respects to Montezuma. He wished, therefore, to go 
to him and himself receive his commands. At the same 
time Cortes gave the Mexican ambassadors, in return 
for the magnificent gifts he had received, a couple of 
linen shirts apiece, some blue glass beads, and other 
trifles, including a cup of Florentine gilt. 

Teutlili, much against his will, departed with the 
message. 

Eight or ten days after, he returned again for the 
last time, bringing more presents, but also a curt mes- 
sage from Montezuma to send no more messengers to 
Mexico, and to make no further mention of coming to 
see him. 

Cortes thanked the ambassadors ; but to his own men 
he remarked dryly, 

"Really, this Montezuma must be a great and rich 
gentleman; nevertheless, if God be willing,, we shall 
one day visit him in his palace !" 

This interview took place at the time of the Ave 
Maria. The bell for the Angelus rang out, and all the 
Spaniards knelt about the cross which had been built 
on a sand-hill. The Mexicans, greatly impressed, 
wished to know the meaning of the service, and this 
gave Father Bartolomo de Olmedo an opportunity to 
explain to them what he could of the Christian faith. 
Cortes added that among the many reasons he had for 

71 



MEXICO 

visiting them, the chief was that they should give up 
the worship of their horrible idols and abolish human 
sacrifices. The Mexicans listened in silence, and soon 
took their departure. 

At once the coast Indians who had been bringing the 
Spaniards provisions ceased to do so, and they began 
to suffer from lack of food. The site of their camp 
was very unhealthy; before May was over, thirty men 
fell ill and died. Many of the survivors became dis- 
couraged. They said that they had accomplished all 
that the Governor, Velasquez, meant that they should; 
they had recovered the Spaniard lost in Yucatan, had 
received a great deal of gold, and had preached the 
Gospel to the natives. Why should they not return 
at once, before more of their number were dead from 
sickness and starvation, and before they were attacked 
by the Mexicans ? 

Cortes replied mildly. He thought it inadvisable to 
go back, he said, before they had seen more of the coun- 
try ; they could live on the Indian corn in the fields ; as 
for the thirty men who had died, that was really a small 
number for a warlike undertaking. 

As a matter of fact, plans were forming in his brain 
of which they had no idea. He had learned through 
secret messengers sent him by the Indian tribes that 
many wished to throw off Montezuma's yoke; and he 
was already planning to use these discontented ones as 
allies in a march to Montezuma's capital. 

72 



CHAPTEE YII 

THE RICH CITY OF THE TRUE CROSS 

Several of the officers were won over to Cortes' side, 
and went about among the soldiers, persuading them 
to remain. It was decided to change the site of the 
camp to a more healthful one some miles to the north. 
In doing so, they left the dreary sand-hills behind, and 
found themselves at the edge of the rich, rolling coun- 
try, where green palms, tropical vines, gay-plumaged 
birds and rare flowers gladdened their eyes. They 
named the settlement Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, the 
^'Rich City of the True Cross," the richness referring 
to the soil, the "True Cross" to the circumstance that 
they had landed on Good Friday. The settlement of 
Vera Cruz was afterwards moved back to its present 
site on the coast. The threatened mutiny was quelled 
for the time, and the men, of their own accord, re- 
quested Cortes to found the settlement and appoint its 
officers. • This he did, resigning the authority he had 
received from Velasquez into their hands. They im- 
mediately elected him captain-general of the new col- 
ony. By this ruse Cortes freed himself from obedi- 

73 



MEXICO 

ence to Yelasquez. He had made it appear, and made 
the men think, that it was all their own doing ; which is 
one of the sign? of a great commander. 

These formalities over, he took about four hundred 
men and set out to visit the Totonacs at their village 
of Cempoalla. The Indians in terror fled at their ap- 
proach, leaving signs of human sacrifices in the tem- 
ples. 

Three miles from Cempoalla, they were met by 
twenty Indians bearing large, deep-red, deliciously 
scented pineapples, a present from the chief. Soon the 
town came in view, its freshly plastered buildings shin- 
ing in the sun. One of the horsemen mistook them for 
silver, and was well chaffed by his comrades when his 
error was discovered. 

As they approached, the inhabitants thronged the 
streets in their gayest clothes of colored cotton stufls, 
with ornaments of gold and headdresses of flowers and 
colored plumes. The houses, built of stone and mor- 
tar, were surrounded by lawns and gardens, and many 
had spacious courtyards. The chief of Cempoalla, a 
very fat man, was good nature itself and made the 
Spaniards welcome, giving them comfortable quarters 
and the best the town could ofler in the way of food, 
chiefly corn and fresh plums. He also tendered Cortes 
a small present of gold and mantles, all, he said, that 
they possessed. Montezuma had taken the rest, and 
also oppressed them cruelly, seizing a great number 

74 



THE EICH CITY OF THE TKUE CKOSS 

of their fairest girls and bravest young men yearly for 
sacrifice. 

Cortes told him that since he was the envoy of the 
greatest sovereign in all the world, he would help him 
throw off the yoke of the tyrant. 

As they were talking, who should arrive but fi.ve 
Mexican tax-gatherers, very grand personages, who 
marched haughtily by Cortes' quarters, their noses in 
the air, their wands of office in their hands, each tended 
by a slave who fanned away the flies. The Totonac 
chiefs talking with Cortes turned pale with fear, and 
left him hastily to order a great feast prepared for 
these representatives of the monarch whom they both 
feared and hated. Everywhere was a bustle of prep- 
aration, and Cortes and his men were quite neglected. 

Learning from Marina what it was all about, Cortes 
determined to play a master-stroke. He summoned the 
chiefs back again peremptorily, and actually persuaded 
them to imprison these sacred persons. At first they 
turned pale with horror at the mere suggestion, but 
such was the force of Cortes' words that they not only 
summoned up courage to seize these grand officials, but 
added insult to injury by attaching them by the col- 
lar to long poles, like the worst criminals. 

When the news of this deed spread, the Indians were 
convinced that the Spaniards who had instigated it 
were not men, but teules, or gods; and such they were 
called from that time on. 

75 



MEXICO 

The chiefs, well aware what a dangerous step they 
had taken, wished to kill the tax-gatherers, so that 
thej could not return to Mexico and tell how they had 
been treated ; but Cortes prevented this. He had other 
plans. He placed a strong guard of Spaniards and In- 
dians about the prisoners, and gave instructions to his 
sentinels that they should bring two of them to him at 
midnight without letting the Indian guards know. 

When they appeared, he pretended not to know what 
had happened, and feigned astonishment when told. 

He had never heard of the move till now ! Let them 
not think that he had a hand in it! Why, he and his 
men were all Montezuma's sincerest friends and most 
devoted servants ! To prove the truth of his words, he 
would set them free, that they might go back and tell 
Montezuma this, and how sorry Cortes was for what 
they had suffered. For the present, would they accept 
his invitation to supper? 

Soon the perplexed officials were sitting down before 
a sumptuous meal of the best food the Totonacs had 
given the Spaniards. After it, Cortes sent them with 
a guard of his own sailors to a place on the coast out 
of the way of the Totonacs. 

lAt daybreak, the Totonacs were very much surprised 
to find two of their prisoners gone. How could they 
have escaped? Cortes was as surprised as they, and 
even more angry. The Totonac guards must have been 
very careless! Such a thing must not occur again. 

76 



THE EICH CITY OF THE TKUE CKOSS 

He himself would take steps to prevent it. The rest 
of the prisoners must be brought, in chains, on board 
his ships, where they would be better watched. This 
was done. 

Once he had the prisoners on board ship, and out of 
hearing of the Totonacs, he changed his tone com- 
pletely, and told them, with a pleasant smile, that he 
had brought them there to rescue them from their cap- 
tors, and that he would send them back to Mexico in a 
very short time. He soon kept his word. 

Cortes' plan in all this duplicity was to stir up 
strife between Montezuma and his coast subjects and 
thus divide the empire and make it easier to conquer. 
On the other hand, he did not wish to come out yet as 
an open enemy of Montezuma's because that would make 
his entrance into the capital too difficult. It is aston- 
ishing to see how far-sighted he was, and how abso- 
lutely correct his moves were from an intriguing point 
of view, even at this early stage of the game, when he 
had only the slightest clues as to the state of the coun- 
try and the possibility of overthrowing Montezuma's 
rule. But though we acknowledge the cleverness of his 
actions, we cannot admire them. We must remember, 
however, that in the age in which Cortes lived, such 
plotting was considered a part of statecraft in the most 
civilized countries. ISTowadays we all know one great 
modern nation that still employs even worse methods in 
her dealings with other countries than those Cortes 

77 



MEXICO 

used in the sixteenth century. And, strangely enough, 
the scene of some of her plotting has been laid in this 
very Mexico. You will see as you go on that this un- 
fortunate land has been a gathering-ground for con- 
spirators of all kinds. Cortes was the first we know 
of, the greatest, the most successful, and perhaps not 
the worst. He, at least, was not influenced entirely by 
base motives ; for he was firmly convinced that the ter- 
ritory belonged by right to Charles Y. of Spain, and 
he did honestly long to put a stop to the horrible hu- 
man sacrifices he saw, and introduce a purer religion. 

Having thus committed the poor Totonacs to a policy 
of opposition to Montezuma, and allowed the tax- 
gatherers to escape, Cortes now set his men to work 
to build the new settlement. The liidians helped, and 
in a surprisingly short time a church, storehouse, fort 
and houses were erected. Cortes himself put the firyt 
hand to the fort, carried earth and stone, and worked 
at the foundations. It was one of the secrets of his 
popularity that he not only directed, but led his men in 
everything, in work as well as in fighting. 

Montezuma, meanwhile, was gi-eatly puzzled by the 
actions of this perplexing white man. At first, when 
he heard of the rebellion of the Totonacs, he rightly laid 
it to the influence of the Spaniards and was for sending 
a force and crushing them at once. Before his soldiers 
left, the released prisoners arrived, and then the poor 
king did not know what to do. So, as usual, he com- 

78 



THE KICH CITY OF THE TEUE CKOSS 

promised. He sent an embassy with more presents to 
Cortes, to thank him for the release of the tax-gatherers, 
but at the same time complained about the revolt of the 
Totonacs, for which he hinted the Spaniards were re- 
sponsible. 

This wavering and regard for the strangers on Mon- 
tezuma's part more than ever convinced the Totonacs 
that the Spaniards were gods. Cortes himself was well 
satisfied, sent word to Montezuma that the Totonacs had 
passed under the jurisdiction of the King of Spain and 
so were freed from Montezuma's sovereignty, and fin- 
ished by saying that he would explain all these matters 
when he called on Montezuma in person. 

It was now almost time to take up his march over the 
high mountains towards the unknown capital. But be- 
fore he left, Cortes, with his wonderful courage, took 
two bold steps. In the very faces of the enraged priests 
and threatening people, he ordered his soldiers to mount 
the steps of the temples in Cempoalla, seize the idols, 
and hurl them down, breaking them into a thousand 
pieces. The natives let fly a storm of arrows at the 
soldiers for this sacrilege; and to ensure their safety, 
Cortes had the chiefs and principal personages seized 
and held as hostages. If the attack was not instantly 
stopped, he declared, they should all forfeit their lives. 
His firmness, as usual, had its effect, and quiet was re- 
stored; which was made more lasting by the fact that 
the people, to their great astonishment, ^w that their 

79 



MEXICO 

supposed gods paid not the slightest attention to the 
insult offered them. Perhaps, after all, the Christian 
gods were more powerful ! They listened, therefore, with 
great respect, when Father Bartolome tried to explain, 
through Marina, the principles of Christianity; they 
consented to have the blood cleaned away from their 
temples, a cross and an altar erected, and an image of 
the Virgin and Child placed on the latter. The temple 
was filled with roses and other sweet flowers, brought 
by the willing Indians, and some of the very priests 
who had officiated before at the horrible cannibalistic 
orgies changed their black robes for white, cut off their 
blood-clotted hair, and consented to keep the temple as 
the Spaniards wished it. An old lame Spanish soldier 
was left to show them their new duties. . 

And now took place one of the most dramatic and 
daring acts of all history. Cortes knew that there was 
still danger of mutiny among his men; in fact, he had 
just had to quell one, and execute two of the leaders. 
As long as the ships remained, ready to carry them 
home, there would be trouble. The only thing that re- 
mained, then, was to destroy the ships ! And this 
Cortes actually persuaded his officers and his men to do. 
In spite of the fact that the ships were all that stood 
between them and ruin, if the Indians decided to turn 
against them, the Spaniards calmly ran them aground 
and burnt them. One only was left, which was sent 
away to carry to the King of Spain the presents of gold 

80 



THE EICH CITY OF THE TKUE CKOSS 

and an account of all that had happened. Then Cortes, 
in a glowing speech, such as he well knew how to make, 
reminded his followers of the ostensible reasons for this 
step: that the hundred sailors of the ships would now 
swell their ranks. Jf any were so cowardly that they 
still wished to return to Cuba, they might go in the 
one vessel about to sail. For the rest, they would ad- 
vance, to the glory of God and the Emperor ! 

Again he had touched the right chord in his soldiers' 
hearts. 

"What sort of Spaniards are we, not to want to push 
ahead, but to stop where there are no hardships or 
fighting ?" exclaimed Bernal Diaz. 

The very soldiers who had been on the verge of 
mutiny were loudest in cheering, and all with one ac- 
cord shouted, 

"On to Mexico!" 



CHAPTEE Vin 
ON TO MEXICO 

On the sixteenth of Aiigust, 1519, Cortes and his 
men began their march over the mountains towards the 
capital they were forbidden to enter, and the monarch 
who could crush them with one decisive word of com- 
mand to his subjects. 

Oh, for a "movie" of this little band on their way 
through the steep mountain passes — the handful of 
mounted officers, handsome in light coats of mail or 
well-fitting doublets and hose, with nodding feathers 
in their caps, managing to perfection their proudly step- 
ping horses — then the men, four hundred or so, a 
bronzed, hard, dirty crew, some of them with lowering, 
discontented faces, others all eagerness to push ahead 
and get their share of Montezuma's treasures — but all 
of them, whatever their inner feelings, controlled for 
the time by the determination of the sallow, politic, 
iron-spirited leader, Cortes. They dragged ^ye or six 
small cannon with them, and were accompanied by a 
number of dogs, probably blood-hounds. 

A small detachment was left to guard the Rich City 

82 



0:N' to MEXICO 

of the True Cross ; and the rest advanced to Cempoalla, 
picking up here a large number of Totonacs, anxious 
to aid in the march of the wonderful teules against 
Montezuma. 

Soon they had left behind the jungle-growths of the 
hot country, the tierra calienta. Gone were the palms, 
the tangle of vines, the strange fruits, gray hanging 
mosses, brilliant flowers and birds. They were climb- 
ing up to the temperate regions on the slopes of the 
mountains, where the air was cooler and more bracing, 
and they marched between groves of sturdy oak. Above 
them could be seen the pine forests, and, towering over 
all, the peak of Orizaba, covered with snow, and red- 
dened with the fires of its burning craters. 

As they proceeded, the nights grew bitterly cold, a 
dangerous change after the sultriness of the coast. The 
Spaniards suffered, and some of the coast natives died. 

They passed through several small towns whose chiefs 
received them hospitably, sometimes because they were 
friends of the Totonacs, sometimes because they were 
marching to visit Montezuma. Cortes informed them 
all that he was the representative of the greatest sover- 
eign in the world, and that they must give up their reli- 
gion. In each town Father Bartolome de Olmedo 
erected a cross. 

In about a week they had ascended the mountain 
slopes and reached the town of Xocotla, on the tableland 
of Mexico, or the plateau of Anahuac, as it is also called. 

83 



MEXICO 

The chief, a very fat man, nicknamed by the Spaniards 
"The Trembler/' because he quivered like a jelly, re- 
ceived them a trifle "sullenly. When asked if he was 
Montezuma's vassal, he inquired, with great surprise, 
"And who is not a vassal of Montezuma V^ 

He told them of Montezuma's power and greatness, 
and of "the great and strong city of Mexico," which lay 
in the midst of waters, and could only be approached 
by drawbridges. This was the first definite information 
the Spaniards had had of the city of Mexico or Tenoch- 
titlan. They were all, including Cortes, much aston- 
ished. "However, instead of being thereby disheart- 
ened, we only the more- earnestly desired to try our for- 
tune against the fortresses and bridges, for such is the 
very spirit of a Spanish soldier," says Bernal de Diaz. 

The Totonac allies spread terror of the Spaniards 
among the people of this town. They pointed out their 
fierce dogs, their deadly cannon, their ferocious horses, 
nimble as deer. They added that the teules could read 
the very thoughts of others ! How else had they been 
able to bring about the imprisonment of the tax- 
gatherers of the great Montezuma, and relieve the coast 
tribes of the necessity of paying tribute ? Even Monte- 
zuma himself paid them deference and sent them 
presents. 

So the rumors flew through the Indian camps, as dark 
heads whispered together, and dark eyes stole sidelong 
glances at the remarkable gods who had invaded their 

84 



OIT TO MEXICO 

country; and when the Totonacs closed with the hint 
that the strangers, like most gods, were fond of gifts, 
oi*naments of gold, cotton clothes, and women to bake 
maize bread were soon forthcoming. Cortes accepted 
all graciously. 

The soldiers, after feasting, went out to see the sights. 
Imagine their feelings, when they discovered at a cer- 
tain spot in the township more than one hundred thou- 
sand skulls piled up ^'in the best order imaginable" in 
a public square, the rest of the bones belonging to the 
skulls decorating the other corners ! On guard over all, 
three priests. The Spanish soldiers were brave, but the 
idea of being taken prisoner and sacrificed according to 
the horrible Aztec method was one which made the 
boldest toss uneasily of nights as he slept in his clothes, 
his weapons by his side. 

There was a doubt now as to how to proceed. There 
were two roads to Mexico : one leading through the coun- 
try of the Tlascallans, that mountain people who had 
been long at war with the Mexicans, and hated them 
with a bitter hatred because the captives taken in war 
were sacrificed every year to the Mexican gods; and 
one entirely in Mexican territory, going through Cho- 
lula, a town which might be called the ^'Boston of 
Mexico" on account of its great culture. ,It was here 
that the Fair God had tarried for twenty years before 
he had quitted Mexico forever. 

The "Trembler" told the Spaniards to go through 

85 



MEXICO 

Cholula, and offered to furnish guides to show them 
the way. The Totonac allies, on the other hand, ad- 
vised against it, hecause the Cholulans, they said, were 
false and treacherous. Cortes followed their advice. 
He sent ahead four Totonacs as messengers to the Tlas- 
callans, hearing a letter, a Flemish hat with a colored 
feather, and other gifts. 

The ambassadors did not return as soon as expected; 
and Cortes with his men marched forward without wait- 
ing. They presently came to a strange obstruction, a 
stone wall nine feet high and twenty feet thick, extend- 
ing right across the valley from mountain to mountain. 
The stones were cemented together so strongly that the 
wall could hardly be broken with pikes. The Xocotlans, 
a small number of whom had accompanied Cortes, told 
him that it had been built by the Tlascallans as a de- 
fense against Montezuma's forces. There was an open- 
ing in it, made by two semi-circular lines of wall over- 
lapping each other so as to form a narrow passage, 
through which the Spanish warriors and their allies 
passed. There were no Tlascallans there to stop them. 

Meanwhile, in the city of Tlascalla, the chief men of 
these warlike mountaineers were engaged in hot discus- 
sions regarding the entry of the Spaniards. The mes- 
sengers had arrived, and had told them the history of 
the "gods" in Mexico, their invincibility, their terrible 
weapons and animals, how they had already freed the 

86 



ON TO MEXICO 

Totonacs from Montezuma, and now desired the friend- 
ship of the Tlascallans, and to visit them. 

Some of the lords were for welcoming the Spaniards 
as gods and children of the sun, come to fulfill the 
ancient prophecies ; but one of them, the old Xicotencatl, 
the oldest of all and blind, said that to him they seemed 
more like monsters than like gods, monsters thrown up 
by the sea because it would no longer contain them! 
He advised against their being allowed to enter 
Tlascalla. 

Finally a compromise was adopted. The Tlascallans 
decided to appear friendly and accept the gifts, but 
secretly to set on the Otomis, a barbarous people who 
were allies of theirs and lived on the borders of their 
territory, to attack the teules. If the Otomis failed, 
they could bear the blame; if they succeeded, the in- 
vaders would be kept out of Tlascalla. 

Cortes and his men, who were in a valley, had not 
gone very far when a number of Indians appeared and 
attacked them. The Spaniards managed to repulse 
them and camped that night in a dry river bed, making 
their supper off animals resembling young dogs, which 
Bernal Diaz tells us made "very delicious joints." 

The next morning they saw a still greater army of 
Indians approaching. Cortes assembled his men, and 
led them to battle, crying "Santiago!'^ (St. Jago, or St. 
James, the patron of Spain.) There was a fierce con- 
flict. The Spaniards were many timqs over outnum- 

87 



MEXICO 

bered by their yelling foes. The Indians, pretending 
to retreat, artfully led them into a mountain pass, and 
then above their heads the Spaniards saw hosts of war- 
riors bearing the flag of Tlascalla, red and white, and 
adorned with a heron with outspread wings. They 
knew then that they were fighting, not the barbarous 
Otomis, as they had supposed, but the Tlascallans them- 
selves. The ground was full of great holes, which made 
their cavalry useless, and stones and arrows came whiz- 
zing at their heads. But they pressed through the pass 
somehow, and reached another plain, where their caval- 
ry and artillery worked havoc in the Indian ranks. 
The Spaniards kept closely together, while the artillery 
mowed down rows of the closely packed natives, and 
the charging horses struck terror to their souls. 

After this battle, however, the Tlascallans never again 
regarded the horses as gods ; for they succeeded in kill- 
ing one, and next day parts of the animal were sent all 
over Tlascalla to show that it was only mortal. One 
reason that the Spaniards were not utterly destroyed was 
that the Indians were determined to capture them alive 
for the sacrifice. Finally Xicotenatl, the son of the old 
chief, drew off his forces, and the Spaniards, wounded 
and exhausted, retreated to the temples of a deserted 
village, where they passed an uncomfortable night. 

The Tlascallan attacks stopped for a day or two, and 
Cortes sent messages of peace and friendship through 
some of his captured prisoners. These came back with 

88 



ON TO MEXICO 

the message from General Xicotenatl that the Tlascal- 
lans would make peace after they had satiated them- 
selves with the flesh of the Spaniards and sacrificed their 
blood and hearts to their gods! He would fight them 
next morning with a much greater army. 

Consternation filled the Spanish camp. The soldiers 
spent the night praying and confessing to the two 
priests. It looked indeed as if they would need all 
their prayers. 

Early the next morning the young Xicotenatl, as 
chivalrous as he was brave, sent Cortes three hundred 
turkeys and two hundred baskets of maize cakes in or- 
der, he said, that the Spaniards might not give hunger 
as an excuse for being defeated! ^It is supposed that 
the Spaniards feasted on them. At any rate, they 
marched out bravely, carrying with them their prized 
standard,, the silk banner with its cross and flames. 
Even the badly wounded among them had to fight, but 
even so there were only about four hundred, besides 
the Totonac allies, against the countless hosts of the 
Tlascallans and Otomis. These awaited them a quarter 
of a mile away, covering the plain with a sea of dark 
heads and colored plumes, interspersed with the heron 
pennants. 

But the very numbers of the enemy proved their un- 
doing, for close packed as they were, the Spanish fire 
mowed them down in heaps, and there was such crowd- 
ing and confusion they could not maneuver. Each 

89 



MEXICO 

Spaniard, the terrible doom of sacrifice before bis eyes, 
fought like the god or devil he was supposed to be ; and 
the result was victory, or, at any rate, a withdrawal of 
the Tlascallan forces. Cortes, in a letter to the King, 
described the event thus simply : 

"We mustered against them, and Our Lord was 
pleased so to aid us, that, in about four hours, we man- 
aged that they should no more molest us in our camp, 
although they still kept up some attacks ; thus we kept 
fighting until it grew to be late, when they retired." 

Miraculous as it may seem, the Spaniards only lost 
one man, although sixty men and all of the horses were 
wounded. These "wounds,'' made by arrows and clubs, 
instead of machine guns, were probably less disabling 
than they sound. 

The Tlascallans next tried a night attack, but the 
Spaniards had posted sentries, who gave the alarm, and 
the cavalry routed the Indians by moonlight. 

Cortes had to fight a worse foe than the Tlascallans, 
and that was the discontent of his own men. They were 
asking each other why he had got them into this tight 
place. He was like a simple character in an old story, 
Peter the Charcoal-burner, who "knew very well where 
he was, but didn't know how to get out." If he had 
gone mad, they need not do likewise. They would re- 
turn to the sea-coast, and leave him to follow if he 
chose. These and many more remarks of the same kind 
were reported to Cortes as he tossed on his bed, stricken 

90 



OlSr TO MEXICO 

with fever and ague ; for even his iron health had been 
affected by the hardships they were enduring. 

Finally a delegation from the discontented ones 
called on him in his tent to beg him to return to Vera 
Cruz before it was too late and they were all sacrificed 
to idols. Such rash things as he had done had never 
been heard of in history ! It was a wonder they were 
not all destroyed. 

Cortes, more sallow than ever with fever, hesitated 
not a moment for his answer. They must go on. God 
was on their side. Besides, if they retreated now, the 
Indians, both allies and foes, would despise them, and 
"the very stones of the ground would be raised up 
against them." "You must bear in mind," he went on, 
"that we are not come into this country to seek repose, 
but to fight valiantly whenever it may be necessary. 
Show yourselves brave soldiers as you have hitherto, 
for, next to God, all depends upon the valor of our 
arms." 

The men still looked sullen. Cortes, dropping his 
mild manner, exclaimed angrily: 

"Let me tell you then, it is better to die like brave 
warriors than to live as cowards !" and they were shamed 
into silence. 

It is not strange that Cortes should have had some 
discontented ones among his followers, for many were 
not soldiers by profession, but business men and men 

91 



MEXICO 

of property who had come to Mexico to enrich them- 
selves rather than to fight. 

Soon after this, the last of Xicotenatl's attacks hav- 
ing failed, that haughty general himself came, with 
other Tlascallan chiefs, to beg for peace. Clad in red 
and white cloaks of neqnen, or hemp fiber, the moun- 
taineers advanced to the tent of the white captain, whom 
they saluted, kissing their hands to the ground and 
waving pans of burning copal in his face. ^^General 
Xicotenatl,'' says Diaz, "was a tall man, broad shoul- 
dered and well built, with a large, fresh-colored face, 
full of scars, as if pitted with the small-pox. He may 
have been about thirty-five years of age, and was earnest 
and dignified in his deportment. '^ We can listen to the 
speech of this officer of what has been called the first 
American republic with more sympathy than did 
Cortes, the loyal representative of an autocratic 
monarch. 

The Tlascallans, said Xicotenatl, had fought as well 
as they knew how, day and night, to escape being con- 
quered by the Spaniards, since it was their boast that 
they had never been subject to any one, not even the 
most powerful Montezuma or his ancestors. They had 
endured everything for the sake of their freedom. But 
now since all their efforts against the Spaniards had 
failed, they would become vassals of the King of the 
strangers rather than be totally destroyed. Here poor 
Xicotenatl gave the conqueror some presents, apologiz- 

92 



ON TO MEXICO 

ing for their poverty on the plea that it was all the 
Aztecs had left them. All this Marina translated, her 
dark eyes flashing with* pleasure because even this 
dreaded warrior had at last surrendered to her captain. 
Xicotenatl closed by delivering an invitation to the 
Spaniards to visit the Tlascallans in their capital city. 

Cortes accepted Xicotenatl's offer of fealty, promising 
that he would visit his city later. He did not quite 
trust his new friends. 

The Tlascallans departed, but not before they had 
seen with alarm that other visitors besides themselves 
were in the Spanish camp. These were some of Monte- 
zuma's officials, who had arrived a day or two earlier, 
and who, on their side, regarded Cortes' dealings with 
the Tlascallans with great disapproval. The Mexicans 
had come with a most humble message from Montezuma, 
who had heard of the success of the Spaniards against 
the Tlascallan hosts and had been disheartened by it. 
He would acknowledge the sovereignty of the King of 
Spain, and give whatever yearly tribute of gold, slaves 
and other valuables that monarch desired; but at the 
same time he made a last attempt to keep the Spaniards 
from coming to visit him by telling them that his city 
was very poor and lacking in provisions and they would 
suffer want. The Spaniards only laughed, knowing 
what they did of the riches of Mexico. 

Still more visitors came to camp in these days, some 
from Montezuma and some from Tlascalla, among the 

93 



MEXICO 

latter being old^ blind Xicotencatl, father of the Gen- 
eral, wbo bad wished to destroy the strangers, but now 
felt of Cortes' face and figu:i»e, since be could not see 
him, and begged bim in boneyed words to visit Tlascalla. 
It was be wbo first called Cortes "Malintzin," meaning 
Marina's captain, a name be came to be generally known 
by among tbe native tribes, because Marina was always 
in bis tent interpreting wben ambassadors called. 

Cortes finally promised tbat be would visit Tlascalla 
if tbe natives would transport bis artillery there, which 
they at once arranged to do. Thus the Spaniards set 
out for the mountain capital. 

It seemed to them quite a splendid city, after their 
many weeks in tbe rough country, and they said it 
was larger than Granada, in Spain, with better shops, 
both for provisions and luxuries. There were even 
barber shops! Whether all this was true, or whether 
the Spaniards were a little dazzled by the strangeness 
of everything, and exhilarated beyond sober judgment 
by their recent successes, it is hard for us to decide. 
Certainly some of the scientists who have studied Mexi- 
can ruins think that no such remarkable towns as the 
Spanish describe ever existed in Mexico. On the other 
hand, one likes to give credit to people actually on the 
spot. I am certain that if any of these critical scien- 
tists had been with Cortes on his march they would have 
found Tlascalla a very delightful city, its houses most 
comfortable in comparison with the rough camps they 

94 



ON TO MEXICO 

had endured, its gayly dressed natives who welcomed 
them with baskets of roses and clouds of incense a most 
delightful contrast to the same natives armed to the 
teeth and hurling stones and arrows at them. 

The Spaniards were lodged in Xicotencatl's palace, 
where, in spite of Tlascallan remonstrances, they wisely 
kept their guard as usual. 

fn Tlascalla, Cortes learned still more of the size 
and grandeur of this Tenochtitlan which he proposed 
to conquer; and also how Montezuma was hated by 
most of the nations subject to him on account of his 
oppressions. Here also he heard for the first time of 
the strange legend which had helped so much his pro- 
gress into the country : that, as the old chronicle puts it, 
"a certain god, to whom they paid great honors, had 
informed them that there would one time come from 
the rising of the sun, out of distant countries, a people 
who would rule over them." 'No wonder that the Span- 
iards were '^all greatly astonished at this account, and 
inquired of each other in amazement, whether all that 
was told them could be true." Cortes was too politic 
not to put the legend to practical use at once. They had 
indeed come, he said, from the rising of the sun. The 
Emperor, his master, had purposely sent them, that 
they might become the brothers of the Tlascallans, and 
save them from eternal perdition! 

As if they had not had enough hardships and danger, 
a party of these intrepid Spaniards under Diego de 

95 



MEXICO 

Ordas attempted the ascent of Mount Popocatepetl, 
which was at that time in violent eruption. The accom- 
panying natives soon became terrified and refused to go 
more than a short distance up the slope, but the Span- 
iards kept on until they had reached the snow, and were 
showered with hot lava and ashes. The cold was so 
intense and the burning showers so violent they did not 
quite reach the crater, but returned, carrying souvenirs 
of snow and icicles to their friends below. As a reward 
for this exploit, Diego de Ordas was afterwards allowed 
by the King to carry a smoking volcano on his coat of 
arms. At some spot on the road the Spaniards had 
their first glimpse of the City of Mexico and the lakes 
spread out on the plain. 

During three wee^s with the Tlascallans, weeks of 
feasting and presenlf-giving (mostly on the Tlascallan 
side), Cortes at last received Montezuma's long-delayed 
invitation to visit him in his capital. The Mexican 
king told Cortes to come thither by way of Cholula, 
which was under Mexican control. The Tlascallans, on 
the other hand, said that Montezuma meant to have 
the Cholulans fall upon the Spaniards and destroy 
them, and advised another route. In spite of this, 
Cortes finally decided on the Cholula route, though he 
took all possible precautions. He and his men set out 
with a great number of Tlascallans, some of whom he 
presently sent away at the request of the Cholulans, but 
others camped outside the Cholulan city. 

96 



ON TO MEXICO 

The Spaniards were welcomed in Cholula in the 
usual way, with bows, flowers, and incense. Before 
entering the town, Cortes read the Cholulans a letter 
drawn up in Spanish by his notary, calling upon them 
to pay allegiance to the Spanish King, bn pain of being 
treated as rebels. The Cholulans of course understood 
not a word of this document ; but this did not matter, in 
Cortes' eyes; they were made Spanish subjects by it 
all the same. 

This town also seemed very beautiful to the Span- 
iards, and they noticed at once the great number of 
temples, more than a hundred, for Cholula was a center 
of religion, as befitted a city where the god Quetzalcoatl 
had passed twenty years. The largest temple was 
higher than any they had seen, higher even than the one 
they were to see in Mexico. At the beginning of their 
stay all was feasting and pleasure, yet even then' the 
Spaniards thought they detected signs of treachery: 
piles of stones on the house-tops, holes in the streets 
dangerous to cavalry, and the stopping up of many 
streets and of the main highway out of town. On the 
third day of their visit the Cholulans ceased bringing 
proviaions and looked at them, they thought, derisively. 
And then Marina told Cortes an alarming tale. 

An old Cholulan woman, it seemed, had taken a fancy 
to her, and warned her that her people had received 
orders from Montezuma to fall upon all the Spaniards 

97 ' 



MEXICO 

that niglit or the next day. If Marina would escape, 
she must come home with her that evening. 

Artful Marina thanked the old woman and promised 
to go, but said first she must pack her things, as she had 
many valuable golden trinkets. Instead of doing this, 
she came straight to Cortes. 

Cortes had already been warned to somewhat the 
same effect by the Cempoallan allies and messages sent 
from the Tlascallans outside the city. The Cholulans, 
it seemed, were making war-sacrifices in the temples and 
sending away their women and children. As soon as 
Cortes had heard Marina's story, he had the old woman 
and two other Cholulans in camp seized and brought 
before him, and by cross-questioning convinced himself 
that his suspicions were facts. They told him that 
Montezuma, who had at first told the Cholulans to re- 
ceive the Spaniards hospitably, had afterwards changed 
his mind and sent orders to fall upon them; that great 
numbers of Mexican warriors were hiding in the moun- 
tains just outside town to aid in the affair. 

Cortes called his officers together. They were of 
many minds; but Cortes, as usual, quickly formed his 
plan of action. To strike the Cholulans before they 
could strike him was his one idea; and he was abso- 
lutely pitiless in carrying it out. He sent word to the 
Cholulan chiefs, telling them that he planned to leave 
their town the next day, and wished the principal lords 
to assemble in his quarters early the next morning for 

98 



ox TO MEXICO 

a conference, bringing with them 2000 Cholulans to 
carry the Spanish baggage out of the country. This 
practice of lending men to carry the baggage of depart- 
ing guests for some distance was a hospitable custom of 
all the native tribes of Mexico. 

The Cholulans unsuspectingly agreed, and very early 
the next morning they entered the temple courtyard 
next to the Spanish quarters, whose high stone walls 
had seen many sacrifices, but none so dreadful as the 
one which followed. For the orders which Cortes had 
ruthlessly given his soldiers were as ruthlessly carried 
out; and the Spaniards with drawn swords fell upon 
the unarmed and defenseless Cholulans, till the court- 
yard pavement ran red with blood. Of all the natives 
who entered so unsuspectingly, scarcely any escaped 
alive, for the three entrances were all guarded with 
soldiers and guns. Among the dead were many of the 
most iAportant chiefs, who had come to confer with 
Cortes. Meanwhile the Tlascallans outside the city 
took occasion to rush in and slaughter their ancient 
enemies in the streets, and drag numbers of them away 
for sacrifice. Altogether in that bloody morning more 
than 3000 Cholulans lost their lives; and Cortes was so 
little ashamed of this that he took pains to report the 
number to the Spanish king. At last, yielding to 
frenzied entreaties of the remaining nobles and priests, 
Cortes ordered the massacre stopped; the Tlascallans 
were made to give up their prisoners and leave the city. 

99 



MEXICO 

This act was the most cruel one of Cortes' career. 
!N"otliing can excuse it, not even the plea of self-defense 
against treachery. If the evidence against the Cholu- 
lans was really so overwhelming as he makes out — and 
there is a good deal of doubt about this — he could have 
held the Cholulans in the courtyard as hostages until 
assured of a safe passage out of town. Bernal Diaz 
tries to make things better by saying that at any rate 
the affair showed the Cholulans that their gods were 
of no use, and so put them in a better frame of mind 
to accept Christianity! He does not say what idea 
the Cholulans had of the Christian god who had appar- 
ently inspired the massacre of 3000 defenseless people. 

But Cortes probably spent little time in considering 
the rights and wrongs of the case ; or if he did, thought 
in his positive way that the Cholulans deserved their 
fate as rebels and traitors to the King and the Faith 
they had never acknowledged. He had no pity; his 
policy was terror ; and it worked 1 Two of the captive 
lords whose lives had been spared were sent to reassure 
the terrified inhabitants and make them return to the 
city, for most of them had fled ; and within twenty days 
life in the city resumed its normal course, and hostility 
to the white men did not dare to show itself. 

Meanwhile Montezuma was growing more and more 
distracted at the doings of these terrible white men. 
He spent his days consulting his lords and astrologers, 
sending messengers to Cortes to try and keep him from 

100 



OK TO MEXICO 

coming, and making preparations in case lie did come, 
l^one of the messages, of course, had any effect on the 
determined Spaniard. 

On the first of November the little army with its 
Indian allies began its march again, up the steep pass 
which led to the Mexican plateau. As they gained the 
highest point and came in view of the gleaming lakes 
and lake towns, their excitement was even greater than 
that of the Israelites when they saw the Promised Land. 
Surely nothing like this magnificent country had ever 
been dreamed of in the Old World ! The dangers that 
confronted them were forgotten, and they thought only 
of enjoying themselves in Montezuma's palaces. 

At every town, through which they passed, chiefs 
greeted them with messages from the undecided King, 
vainly begging them go and leave him in peace. To 
each, Cortes gave answer that he was charged by his 
master. King Charles, to give a message to Montezuma 
in person ; that he meant him and the Mexicans not 
harm but good, and that after reaching the city, he 
would leave it as soon as the Mexicans desired. All of 
which promises were worth not even so much as a "scrap 
of paper'' in modern times. 

The final official who tried to stop Cortes was the 
young King of Texcuco, Cacamatzin, who came out to 
meet him in a gorgeous litter covered with plumes and 
jewels. He and his nobles all fell on their knees pro- 
testing against Cortes' advance, but of course to no avail. 

101 



MEXICO 

"Next the Spaniards reached the lovely little lake-town 
of Cuitlahuac, now Tlahua, and called hj the Spaniards 
Venezuela, or little Venice, on account of its watery 
streets. They saw here the famous floating gardens, 
filled with vegetables and flowers, which the natives 
moved by long poles about the surface of the lake. 

Their last stop was at the fine city of Iztapalapan, 
seven miles from Mexico, which was noted for its botan- 
ical and zoological gardens, far ahead of anything in 
Europe at that time, and its fine stone houses with 
lovely courtyards and grounds. "Everything was so 
charming and beautiful that we could find no words to 
express our astonishment," Bernal Diaz exclaims. 
After the Conquest not a stone of this beautiful city was 
standing. They were royally treated here, and given 
many valuable presents of gold and embroidered gar- 
ments, but nothing could keep them from pressing on 
to Mexico. 



CHAPTEK IX 
KIDNAPPING A MONAKCH 

On the morning of the eighth of November, 1519, the 
Spaniards were on the causeway which was one of three 
to connect Tenochtitlan with the mainland, and so wide 
that eight of the Spanish cavah*y could ride abreast on 
it. On all sides, in the road, and in canoes on the 
lake, a crowd of Aztecs gazed at the descendants of the 
god who had at last, as they believed, carried out his 
promise. At the entrance to the city they were greeted 
by one thousand principal citizens, with salutations and 
kissing of hands to the bare earth ; and then, after cross- 
ing a drawbridge, they saw approaching in a gorgeous 
litter, none other than the great Montezuma, escorted 
by two hundred of his courtiers. 

Never has there been a more impressive scene in the 
history of the American continent than this meeting 
between the Emperor of all Mexico and the Spanish 
adventurer. The picturesque surroundings, the silver- 
towered city rising from the gleaming lake, the count- 
less hosts of gayly-dressed subjects watching in awed 
silence, the magnificence of Montezuma and his train, 

103 



MEXICO 

the bronze, war-worn, jet fiery appearance of the Span- 
iards; — all these seem like a page from the "Arabian 
ISTights" rather than sober history. The Spaniards, we 
may be sure, realized that they were living a romance 
of the first order; and their hearts beat high with tri- 
umph, as with swords clanking and horses prancing, 
they advanced into this City of Legend. 

Montezuma alighted from his litter and approached, 
leaning upon the arms of two obsequious lords, between 
two files of bare-footed though splendidly dressed cour- 
tiers, who stood silent with down-cast eyes as he passed. 
Cortes alighted from his horse and impetuously made as 
if to embrace the Aztec King, but the lords, aghast at 
such familiarity, prevented, and they and their royal 
master also went through the customary salute of kiss- 
ing their own hands and touching them to the ground. 
Cortes then took a collar from his neck and gave it to 
Montezuma with a truly princely air. The fact that 
it was made principally of glass beads did not interfere 
at all with the flourish with which he presented it to 
the monarch who had given him so much jewelry of 
surpassing value. Montezuma signed to his servants, 
who presently came with some beautifully worked 
golden necklaces for Cortes in return. Meanwhile the 
procession started back towards town, Cortes being es- 
corted by Montezuma's brother. At every step the 
wonder of the Spaniards grew, as they saw the beautiful 
houses, streets, markets and temples of this great 

104 



KIDJN^APPING A MONARCH 

American city. Presently they reached the palace 
which Montezuma had assigned to the Spaniards, where 
he left them to he served with a delicious repast. In 
the afternoon he returned with his retinue for another 
stately visit ; during which he made Cortes the following 
remarkable speech, which I quote in shortened form 
from Cortes' own report of it. 

We have known since a long time, from the chronicles of 
our forefathers, that neither I, nor those who inhabit this 
country, are descendants from the aborigines of it, but from 
strangers, who came to it from very distant regions; and we 
also hold, that our race was brought to these parts by a lord, 
whose vassals they all were and who returned to his native 
country. . . . And we have always held that his descendants 
would come to subjugate this country and us, as his vassals; 
and according to the direction from which you say you come, 
which is where the sun rises, and from what you tell us of your 
great lord, or king, who has sent you here, we believe and hold 
for certain that he is our rightful sovereign. . . . 

Since you are in your rightful place and in your own homes, 
rejoice and rest, free from all the trouble of the journey and 
the wars you have had. . . . All that I possess, you may have 
whenever you wish. 

Bernal Diaz describes Montezuma as about forty 
years old (he was really fifty-six), fairly tall, slender, 
well-proportioned, with a complexion somewhat lighter 
than the average Indian. He was very clean, the Span- 
ish soldier tells us, and adds, with a touch of awe, that 
he took a bath every single day! He never wore his 
garments more than once. 

105 



MEXICO 

Cortes soon returned Montezuma's visit with all cere- 
mony in the royal palace. He took with him Pedro de 
Alvarado, nicknamed by the Tlascallans the ^^Snn," on 
account of his light hair and florid complexion, hand- 
some appearance and bright smile, and other officers 
and some soldiers, among whom was the observant 
Bernal Diaz. 

Cortes began his discourse to the Emperor with a 
long explanation of the Christian religion, and urged 
him to adopt it instead of his own. 

Montezuma listened, astonished at what he considered 
the stranger's ill-breeding. He replied, in a tone which 
discouraged even the irrepressible Cortes for the time. 

"I know what you have stated about the Cross and 
everything else in the towns you have passed through. 
We however have kept silent, as the gods we adore were 
adored in bygone ages by our ancestors, and we once and 
for all acknowledge them to be good gods ! Let us talk 
no longer on this subject!" 

He then went on to say pleasantly that he had opposed 
the entrance of the Spaniards because his people were 
afraid of them; that since he had become acquainted 
he had formed a very high opinion of them, and was 
ready to share with them all that he possessed. He 
made a little fun of the people of Tlascalla for telling 
Cortes that he was a god. 

"You must just think of that as I think of the light- 

106 



kid:n^apping a moxaech 

ning and burning flames which jou are said to whirl 
about in all directions!" he said. 

He gave them all rich presents ; more than a thousand 
dollars' worth of gold to the officers; to each soldier a 
fine gold neck-chain. ^^Everything he gave away was 
given with the best of good will, and an air of dignity 
such as you might expect in so great a monarch," says 
Bernal Diaz. 

On another day a visit to the market and one of the 
great temples was arranged, at the request of Cortes. 
"We were perfectly astonished at the vast numbers of 
people, the profusion of merchandise exposed for sale, 
and at the good police and order that reigned through- 
out," Bernal says. As we have already seen the market 
through Aztec eyes in the chapter on old Anahuac, we 
will not linger there with the Spaniards, but rejoin 
them, when, after admiring to the utmost, they were 
taken by their Aztec guides to the great temple of the 
Tlatelolco quarter, where Montezuma awaited them. 
He was already on the summit, sacrificing, but sent his 
officers down to help the Spaniards make the ascent of 
the one hundred and fourteen steps. 

"l^othing ever tires me or my companions," Cortes 
declared, with a touch of boastfulness unusual in him. 

From the summit the Spaniards gained a wonderful 
view of the outspread city ; but they could not help 
thinking, as they noticed the three causeways, each 
guarded by drawbridges, which were the only exits from 

107 



MEXICO 

the city, how greatly they wefe at the mercy of this 
hland but possibly deceitful monarch. This fear was 
driven away, for the time, by their horror at seeing the 
sanctuaries, reeking with blood and the smoke from 
burning human hearts. Cortes had the audacity to 
tell Montezuma that his idols were not gods, but devils, 
and asked permission to cast them down and erect a 
statue to the Virgin in their place. Montezuma, much 
offended, replied, 

"Had I thought, Malintzin, that you would offer such 
an insult, I would not have shown you my gods. I beg 
you to dishonor them no further !'' 

Even Cortes felt that he had gone too far, and, chang- 
ing his tone, shortly after took leave of his host, who 
remained behind to make further sacrifices to appease 
his insulted deities. He gave permission, however, to 
the Spaniards to fit up a chapel in their own quarters. 
While the altar for this chapel was being erected, the 
carpenter discovered a hidden door leading to a room 
containing a great quantity of gold, precious stones, 
rich stuffs, shields and arms — in fact, the hoarded 
treasure left by Montezuma^s grandfather, the Emperor 
Axayacatl. Cortes was notified of the discovery, or- 
dered the door blocked up again, and nothing to be said. 

The Spaniards were enjoying themselves in this hos- 
pitable city of Tenochtitlan, but they felt far from 
secure. What chance would they have for their lives if 
Montezuma should suddenly order the drawbridges to 

108 



KIDJ^APPING A MO:NrAECH 

be raised and the inhabitants to fall upon them ? Cortes 
talked the matter over with his officers, and then and 
there worked out the wildest, maddest scheme that ever 
made the Muse of History appear first cousin to a 
moving picture director ! This was none other than to 
seize Montezuma and keep him a prisoner in the Span- 
ish quarters. 

On the morning of Monday, ITovember 14, a subdued 
thrill of excitement ran through the temple where the 
Spaniards lodged. The men were armed, the horsemen 
were exercising their horses, the artillery was ready for 
action: but all these preparations were hidden as much 
as possible so that the natives would not notice anything 
unusual. Presently Cortes with five or six of his cap- 
tains rode through the courtyard and out into the street, 
a number of soldiers following them in small parties, as 
if by accident, but really to keep the street open behind 
them. Cortes and the officers rode to the royal palace, 
where they were expected for an interview. 

As usual, Cortes had a pretext for the part he in- 
tended to play. You will remember that he had left 
a colony at Vera Cruz. During the march to Mexico he 
had once or twice sent back word of his own progress 
and received messages from them. Everything had 
gone well there until Cortes' arrival in Mexico. Since 
then, he had had bad news. The Totonacs had revolted 
and killed six Spaniards, among them the governor of 
the colony, Juan de Escalante; and Cortes had heard 

109 



MEXICO 

that they had done so on account of direct orders from 
Montezuma. 

Montezuma received the party unsuspectingly, and in 
his usual generous style gave them handsome presents 
of gold. ^Nor was this enough. He bestowed upon 
Cortes the hand of one of his daughters in marriage, and 
gave daughters of other lords to Cortes' captains. In 
Mexican eyes polygamy was no crime; and the Span- 
iards do not seem to have laid any stress upon what 
their own faith taught them in this regard. 

It would have been hard for most people to accept 
these presents and then turn about and make things 
unpleasant for the giver; but Cortes does not seem to 
have had any trouble in doing so. "After conversing 
with Montezuma lightly on pleasant subjects," as Bernal 
Diaz puts it, he suddenly brought up the subject of the 
rebellion at Vera Cruz. He said that he did not believe 
Montezuma was responsible, but he thought he ought to 
make an inquiry into the affair at once and have the 
guilty parties punished. 

Montezuma declared he knew nothing of the matter. 
He took a seal ring from his finger, one that was only 
used with messages of the highest importance, and dis- 
patched his officers with it to the coast to inquire into 
the affair. This prompt obedience to Cortes' wishes did 
not soften the latter in the least. He went on to say 
that though he was grateful to the Emperor for the 
diligence he showed in punishing the guilty ones, still 

110 



KIDJ!^APPI]^G A MOI^AECH 

he, Cortes, was responsible to the Emperor of Spain for 
the murdered Spaniards, and therefore he wished Mon- 
tezuma to come quietly with him to the Spanish quarters 
until it was found out who was guilty. 

At this astounding proposal, which was duly trans- 
lated by Marina, Montezuma started, and a look of 
extreme astonishment and indignation crossed his face. 

"Do not be offended or pained," said Cortes. "You 
will not be a prisoner in my apartments ; you will be 
quite free to do as you choose. You may have any room 
you like, your own attendants, and every one will do 
exactly as you order." 

This attempt to gild the cage he was to be shut up 
in did not reassure the alarmed Emperor. Seeing this, 
Cortes added sternly: 

"If you make any alarm or call out to your atten- 
dants, you are a dead man ! I and my officers will see 
to that !" 

Montezuma was speechless with terror, at first, but 
finally he summoned up courage. "He was quite as- 
tonished we should presume to take him prisoner and 
lead him away out of his palace against his wishes! 
!N"o one had a right to demand that of him!" 

Cortes answered quietly, and he and Montezuma 
argued about the matter for half an hour or more. 
Einally Juan de Velasquez, one of Cortes' officers, ex- 
claimed, 

"What is the use of wasting so many words? He 

111 



MEXICO 

must either quietly follow us, or we will cut him down 
at once. Tell him that ; for on this depends the safety 
of our lives. We must he firm, or we are lost !" 

Montezuma could not understand the words, hut 
understood Velasquez' scowl and loud, harsh tone only 
too well, and asked what he said. 

Marina interpreted, adding: '^Great monarch, if I 
may be allowed to give you advice, make no further 
difficulties, hut follow them at once to their quarters. I 
am confident they will pay you every respect, and treat 
you as becomes a powerful monarch. But if you con- 
tinue to refuse, they will cut you down on the spot." 

In vain Montezuma asked if they would not take his 
son and his two daughters instead. "What will the 
grandees of my empire say," he asked weakly, "if they 
see me taken prisoner ?" 

His feeble remonstrances were of no avail. As we 
read the story, we feel as if poor, bewildered Montezuma 
must have indeed been hypnotized by the stronger will 
of the desperate Cortes. Else why should he have let 
himself be kidnapped in his own castle, in the midst of 
thousands of his own people? Sadly he ordered his 
"rich and splendid" sedan to be brought, sadly he 
stepped into it, and sadly, with tears, even, his at- 
tendants obeyed his orders to bear him from his castle. 
They were told that Montezuma in going with the 
Spaniards for a visit was obeying the command of the 
war-god ; but they knew that all was not as it should be ; 

112 




Montezuma II and the Temple of Human 
Sacrifice. 



KIDIS'APPING A MOJSTAKCH 

and the people, when they saw the royal litter sur- 
rounded by armed white men in the streets, gathered in 
crowds and made rebellious movements. Montezuma 
quieted them and told them to disperse. So, of his 
own free will, apparently, he was carried to the temple 
he had assigned to the invaders. 

As soon as Cortes had Montezuma safely in his power, 
he took pains to make the monarch feel the change ad 
little as possible. He was allowed to see his nobles 
every day, to govern as usual, to have his own atten- 
dants, who carried on the same pomp and ceremonial 
and served the same luxurious meals as at his own court. 
Bernal Diaz says that the Emperor appeared happy and 
contented. We can hardly believe it. He must have 
spent sad hours thinking of his former freedom, and 
recalling those promises Cortes had given so many times 
on his way to Mexico, when he assured the Emperor by 
his messages that he was coming to do him nothing but 
good. 

In about two weeks the chiefs of the Totonacs, who 
had headed the outbreak, were brought to Mexico. 
They were loyal to Montezuma and would not acknowl- 
edge that he had had anything to do with the uprising. 
Cortes sentenced them all to be burnt. While this cruel 
execution was being carried out in the courtyard, he 
caused Montezuma to be put in irons, lest he should 
make some disturbance. It was a terrible humiliation 
for the forlorn King, who wept bitterly as his devoted 

113 



MEXICO 

courtiers, weeping also, knelt and held the chains so 
that they should not hurt him. Truly, then, ^'the iron 
entered into his soul." When the executions were over, 
Cortes himself came and took the chains off, witji the 
hypocritical assurance that "he loved him more than a 
brother!" Montezuma pretended to believe him. 
iNTothing is more pathetic, under the circumstances, than 
the way in which Montezuma strove to keep on good 
terms with the man who was bullying him out of his 
kingdom. Cortes tells his King, 

"So good was my treatment of him . . . that I offered 
him his liberty, praying him to return to his palace; 
but he told me each time that he was contented here, 
and that he did not wish to go, because nothing that he 
wished was wanting, more than in his own palace; 
whereas it might happen that, if he went back, the lords 
of the country, his vassals, would importune him to do 
things, in spite of himself, which would be contrary to 
his own wish." 

Indeed, Montezuma probably felt that he had alien- 
ated himself forever from his own friends by his weak 
and cowardly conduct, and that his only hope now lay 
with Cortes. He continued making the greatest pos- 
sible efforts to appear happy in his miserable position. 
He played games with Cortes for golden counters, giv- 
ing his winnings to the Spaniards in the room, while 
Cortes gave his to Montezuma's nephew, who w^as there, 
and his servants. The handsome, agreeable Alvarado 

114 



KiD:^rAPPi:N:G a mokaech 

kept score for Cortes, and was apt, Bernal Diaz says, 
to mark one more than he ought. Montezuma caught 
him at it, and mentioned the fact politely ; at which the 
soldiers in the room burst out laughing, for Alvarado 
was notorious for cheating. 

Sometimes Montezuma took -Q-ve or six of the Span- 
iards and went on various pleasure-expeditions about 
the vicinity, to the parks or other places of amusement, 
and the soldiers always liked to go on these trips 
because they were given handsome presents by the 
monarch. He was, in fact, always generous and win- 
ning, and the Spaniards, both officers and men, became 
very fond of him. 

The allied princes and nobles did not take Monte- 
zuma's imprisonment as calmly as he. The young King 
of Texcuco, Cacamatzin, showed his resentment by re- 
fusing to come to the capital. He was shortly after 
deposed through civil war in his kingdom, and Cortes, 
who by that time had taken over all Montezuma's power, 
appointed his brother Cuicuitzcatzin in his place. The 
scene in which Montezuma called his lords together and 
informed them that henceforth they must render to 
Cortes the tribute and service they had formerly ren- 
dered to him was a very affecting one. All shed tears, 
and even the Spaniards felt compassion, Bernal Diaz 
says. Montezuma excused his abdication by repeating 
the old story of Quetzalcoatl. 

Cortes lost no time in sending his men to collect 

115 



MEXICO 

tributes of gold from Montezuma's princes. His depu- 
ties returned with bars and sheets of gold, jewels and 
much beautiful f eatherwork. According to the original 
agreement drawn up between Cortes and the soldiers, 
the Emperor was entitled to one fifth of this, and 
Cortes to a fifth ; but as there was now much grumbling 
over the division, Cortes gave up his share to be divided 
among the poorer soldiers. Meanness was never one 
of his faults. He also sent Spaniards with Indian 
guides to hunt for gold-mines; inquired for a better 
harbor than the one at Vera Cruz ; heard of one on the 
banks of the Coatzacoalco Kiver, and sent Juan Velas- 
quez de Leon with fifty men to make a settlement there. 

Several months passed in all these activities ; and 
still Cortes postponed the accomplishment nearest his 
heart, the cleansing of the great temple, directly opposite 
the Spanish quarters, where they could daily see human 
sacrifices offered. He was only prudent to do so;' 
and if he had considered only his own safety and that 
of his men, he would have postponed it indefinitely; 
but he was too much of a missionary for that. One 
day, after he had been in Mexico about five months, he 
could no longer endure the thought of the human sacri- 
fices still being offered. For the first time since he 
had been there with Montezuma he paid a visit to the 
temple, with ten of his men. 

^'O God, why dost Thou permit the devil to be so 
honored in this land !" he exclaimed, when he saw again 

116 



KIDNAPPING A MONAECH 

the hideous, be jeweled idols and the tokens of sacri- 
fice. He called the priests together and gave them a 
sermon on the Christian religion. The priests defended 
their own, when Cortes became so enraged that he began 
smashing the idols right and left, 'Vith such magnifi- 
cent fury that Andrea de Tapia afterwards declared 
that he seemed like a supernatural being." After he 
had made a thorough job of it, in spite of the frantic 
efforts of the priests and Montezuma himself, who 
hastened to the spot to stop him, he had the temple 
cleansed and freshly plastered and two Christian altars 
set up, one to the Virgin and one to St. Christopher. 

An odd incident occurred soon after the establish- 
ment of the new religion. Rain was much needed, and 
the Indians, who had lost their own gods, asked the 
Christian priests to pray to their God for it. Cortes 
took it upon himself to promise magnificently that their 
prayer should be answered. Mass was said, and a re- 
ligious procession, such as is often seen in Roman 
Catholic countries, set out through the streets, under a 
cloudless sky. They had not gone far when a perfect 
downpour of rain occurred, and the streets were flooded 
ankle deep ! 

As the Spaniards came to be better known, however, 
they began to lose in the public estimation. It became 
very plain that they were not gods, but human beings 
like the natives themselves, only a little better equipped, 
with their steel swords, muskets and cannon. Even the 

117 



MEXICO 

dreaded pawing, charging horses were seen to be merely 
well-trained and extremely docile animals. Added to 
this lessened respect with which the Indians had come 
to regard the strangers came the news of their desecra- 
tion of the temple. From that moment the storm- 
cloud began to gather over the Spanish heads. Priests 
and Indian officials came and went on secret errands to 
Montezuma. Marina warned Cortes that the Mexicans 
were about to attack the Tlascallan allies ; and such was 
the uneasiness in the Spanish camp that the soldiers 
never took off their armor day and night. 

One day Montezuma, still faithful to his captors, sent 
for Cortes and the officers and told them that the gods 
had counseled that the Spaniards must either be put 
to death or driven away. He earnestly warned them to 
leave the city before it was too late. Cortes was per- 
plexed. His forces were divided: Velasquez de Leon 
was away on the Coatzacoalco River with more than a 
hundred men; Rodrigo Rangel with others was laying 
out a plantation for the Spanish king near Chinantla, 
and several small parties of Spaniards were looking for 
gold mines throughout the provinces. He did not wish 
to leave without these men, so he sought to gain time 
by telling Montezuma that he could not leave the coun- 
try without building ships, and asked him to furnish 
workmen to go with the Spaniards to build them at Vera 
Cruz. Montezuma agreed, and at once sent carpenters 
to the coast. 

118 



KIDNAPPING A MONAKCH 

Only a week after they had gone, several Spanish 
ships were sighted from Vera Cruz by Sandoval, who 
had taken Juan de Escalante's place there, and by the 
Indian coast governors, who at once sent word of the 
event by picture-writings to Montezuma. For the time, 
Cortes was ignorant of this. He only noticed that 
Montezuma seemed unusually cheerful; and he little 
guessed that it was because the imprisoned Emperor had 
learned of newcomers who were apparently enemies of 
Cortes. 

In a few days, Montezuma decided to tell Cortes of 
the arrival of the ships, and then all was rejoicing in 
the Spanish camps, for they thought at first they were 
friendly and had come to help them. But doubt came 
with second thought. They remembered Velasquez* 
hostility, and wondered if these ships might not be 
sent by him. 

Let us go back for a while to this same touchy Velas- 
quez, who you may be sure had been far from pleased 
when he heard of the way Cortes had cleverly cast off 
his authority by having himself elected by the soldiers 
as the representative of the King direct. He had 
lodged complaints against Cortes with the colonial au- 
thorities in Spain, and managed to make things very 
unpleasant for the agents, Puertocarrere and Montejo, 
whom Cortes had sent to Spain with the letters and 
treasure for the King. These, however, managed at last 
to gain an audience with King Charles. The gold and 

119 



MEXICO 

other rich gifts made a good impression, but the King 
had been prejudiced by the complaints against Cortes he 
had heard, and was moreover much preoccupied with 
his foreign affairs (he was getting himseK made Em- 
peror of Germany), so he did not take any steps to re- 
ward the messengers or to help Cortes. Meanwhile 
Velasquez in Cuba decided to send an expedition to 
capture Cortes and bring him back to Cuba. He chose 
as commander for it Panfilo de ISTarvaez. IlTarvaez 
started off with eighteen ships and about nine hundred 
men, including eighty horsemen. These were the ships 
Sandoval had seen. JSTarvaez sent some priests ashore 
with a message to Sandoval to cast off his allegiance to 
Cortes, the traitor. 

Sandoval would have nothing to do with the mes- 
sengers. 

"Sir priests, you choose your words badly, speaking 
of traitors; all of us here are better servants of his 
Majesty than are Diego Velasquez and this man, your 
captain," he told them. When the priests replied 
sharply, he grew so enraged that he packed them on the 
backs of Indians and ordered them carried to Cortes in 
Mexico without delay ! He sent also a letter explaining 
the situation. 

When the priests thus ignominiously arrived before 
Cortes, the latter released them at once and treated 
them so kindly that they were immediately won over to 
his side. They told him everything about Narvaez and 

120 



KID:^APPIi^G A MOKAKCH 

how he was seeking to prejudice against Cortes not only 
the Spaniards but the coast natives. Cortes saw that 
the only thing to do was to fight. The country was too 
small for both him and J^arvaez. He took all the men 
now with him except eighty whom he left with the 
blond, handsome Pedro de Alvarado to guard Monte- 
zuma, the treasure and the Spanish quarters. Those 
with him numbered about ninety-two. On the way 
down to the coast he received a few reinforcements from 
parties whom he had sent out to explore the country, 
also two hundred pCndians with long, copper-tipped 
lances from Chinantla, and even some of Narvaez' own 
men whom he met and won over on the way. 

Cortes' allies, the Tlascallans, refused to join him. 
They would fight with him against Indians, but not 
against white men with horses and cannon. 

Not far from the coast Cortes drew up his men by the 
side of a river and made them one of his stirring 
speeches. He reminded them of all they had suffered to 
win these lands for his Majesty, and now, he said, 
"Panfilo ^JsTarvaez comes tearing along like a mad dog, 
to destroy us all! . . . Up to this moment we have 
fought to defend our lives, now we shall fight valiantly 
for our lives and honor !" 

Plans for the night attack on Cempoalla, where Nar- 
vaez now had his quarters, were carefully laid, and each 
man knew what he had to do. Some were to capture 
!Narvaez' cannon ; among these was one Pizarro, ^'who at 

121 



MEXICO 

that time was a daring joung fellow," Bernal Diaz tells 
us, "but in those days as little known to the world as 
Peru itself." Sandoval with some of the men was to 
arrest I^Tarvaez. Even Marina had her part, which was 
to guard the horses and baggage left behind at the brook, 
with the help only of a small page. 

It was a hot, rainy night, black as pitch. They had 
first to cross the deep, swollen stream, a dangerous mat- 
ter, in which many of the men were nearly drowned, 
but they accomplished it successfully. On the other 
side they ran across tWO of ISTarvaez' scouts, captured 
one, but the other escaped to give the alarm. Cortes 
and his men therefore pushed forward even faster to 
surprise l^arvaez before the scout reached him. Yet in 
spite of their haste they found time to dismount and 
recite prayers with their priest. Father Bartolome. 
Then they ran on. Faint lights came from a building 
ahead of them, the temple where Narvaez' men had their 
quarters. The sentinels posted to guard it fled before 
the onrush of men in the darkness. Yells and cries 
broke the stillness. Narvaez and his men awoke from 
their sleep to find Cortes' soldiers swarming up the 
temple steps. The sparks from their matchlocJis 
mingled with the lights of countless fireflies, and the 
attacked camp thought the enemy much more numerous 
than they were. To add to their confusion, one of 
Cortes' soldiers threw a lighted brand upon the thatched 
roof of the temple, and soon the straw was in a blaze. 

122 



KIDNAPPING A MONAECH 

Cortes rode here and tliere directing operations, in fuU 
armor, and dripping with perspiration. 

Soon the cry arose, ^'Victory! victory! Narvaez is 
fallen ! Long live the Emperor and General Cortes 1" 

Narvaez was not dead, but had been captured and had 
lost an eye in the struggle. When his wound had been 
dressed by a surgeon and he was brought before Cortes, 
he said, in his arrogant way, 

"You have much reason, Senor Cortes, to thank For- 
tune for having given you such an easy victory, and 
placed me in your power." 

"The least important deed that I have accomplished 
in this country, was to capture you !" was Cortes' biting 
answer. 

He had certainly cause to feel jubilant, however, for 
now he had a new fleet, a new army and fresh stores of 
munitions to carry out his plans. Narvaez' soldiers 
went over to him without any trouble, as he was a much 
more popular commander than their recent master, and 
they hoped that they too would gain golden collars like 
the ones his men were now wearing. The Cempoalla 
Indians were really the worst sufferers from the con- 
flict. The fat chief had been wounded during the as- 
sault of the temple, the greater part of their town had 
been destroyed, and they were dying like flies from the 
small-pox, which had its first start in Mexico from a 
Cuban negro with Narvaez who was suffering from the 
disease. 

123 



MEXICO 

But the content of the Spaniards did not last long. 
"Trouble and sorrow followed peace and joy," as Bernal 
Diaz puts it. ITews came from Mexico that the Mexi- 
cans had risen as one man and were besieging Alvar ado's 
garrison in their quarters ! 



CHAPTEE X 

THE REVOLT OF THE AZTECS 

Cortes, with all his men, old and new, at once began 
the march all the long way over the mountains back to 
the capital. The Tlascallans were friendly as before, 
but could give them little news of the cause of the 
trouble in Mexico. The Spaniards hastened on, enter- 
ing the valley by the northern route which led through 
the rival town of Texcuco. As they descended the 
mountains into the valley, they noticed that the natives 
were cold and unfriendly. Still greater was the change 
when at last, with anxious hearts, they hurried over the 
causeway into the Aztec city. 'No welcoming parties 
met them, as before; they marched through streets as 
silent and deserted as those of the dead. But they 
reached safely the palace of Axayacatl where the Span- 
ish had their quarters, the great gates were thrown 
eagerly open to receive them, and their friends inside 
embraced them as their deliverers. Montezuma, also, 
came to meet Cortes with sad and anxious face ; but the 
Spanish general repulsed him coldly. Most unjustly, 

125 



MEXICO 

he blamed him for the disturbance; but soon he found 
that the fault had been all Alvarado's. 

That blond and beautiful being, the ^^Sun/' had or- 
dered his soldiers to fall upon a great number of 
Mexicans as they were innocently celebrating the feast 
of May in a temple courtyard by his own permission, 
and slaughter them right and left. The flower of the 
Aztec nobility fell that cruel day in the courtyard 
which was turned intp a shambles. Alvarado had no 
other excuse than a rumor he claimed to have heard 
that the Mexicans were planning a revolt. 

The Aztecs had risen with a fury and a determina- 
,tion of which the Spaniards had never believed them 
capable. The whole city besieged the Spanish quarters 
in a howling, fighting mob. They might have suc- 
ceeded in taking the place by storm, if Montezuma had 
not mounted the battlements and begged them to stop, 
for the sake of his own safety. At that they quieted 
somewhat, but only to change their attack into a siege. 
They surrounded the palace, and the Spaniards could 
neither go out nor could food and water be brought to 
them. This was the state of affairs when Cortes and 
his men reached there. 

When Cortes heard of Alvarado's appalling deed 
from his own lips, his face grew dark with wrath, and 
he exclaimed, 

"You have done badly. You have been false to your 
trust. Your conduct has been that of a madman !" 

126 



THE EEVOLT OF THE AZTECS 

Still, even he did not think that the Mexicans were 
as determined as they were. But as day after day 
passed, and the army outside ever increased, the Span- 
iards saw that their condition was desperate. They 
learned that the drawbridges were raised, cutting off 
their retreat from the city, and wherever they looked 
outside their walls they saw masses of warriors, in the 
streets, on the roofs of the houses, thronging the temples. 
From these high positions, arrows, stones and firebrands 
fell continuously into the Spanish quarters. 

The Spanish used their guns and cannon for firing 
from behind their walls; but though they mowed the 
Indians down in great numbers, still more came up to 
take their places. The Aztecs felt the loss of hundreds 
of their number less than the Spaniards that of one man. 
Cortes led a daring sortie outside the palace walls. The 
cavalry cut down the natives, while the infantry fol- 
lowed to complete the work; the Aztecs were not dis- 
couraged. Fresh battalions swarmed in from all the 
side streets, men in canoes on the canals dragged the 
Spaniards into the water, warriors on the house-tops 
hurled great stones upon them. The Spaniards at- 
tempted to set fire to these buildings, but the fire could 
not spread on account of the canals between. At last 
the Spaniards retreated. They had been victorious and 
driven back the enemy at every point, but what did that 
matter, since the enemy did not know when they were 
beaten ? 

127 



MEXICO 

The Aztecs, following their custom, did not attack at 
night, but all night long their shrill cries rang upon the 
air just outside the Spanish walls. 

"The gods have delivered jou at last into our hands," 
they cried. "Our war-god is demanding his victims. 
The stone of sacrifice is ready ! The knives are sharp- 
ened. And the cages are waiting for the lean Tlascal- 
lans, who must be fattened for the festival !" 

Cortes determined to ask Montezuma to speak to his 
people and ask them to stop. Montezuma was very 
unwilling. 

"Why does Malinche now turn to me, to me who am 
tired of life and could wish never again to hear his 
name mentioned, for it is he who has plunged me into 
all this misery ?" he inquired bitterly. "I will neither 
see nor hear anything more of this man. I put no 
longer any faith in his deceitful words, his promises 
and his lies !" Yet he finally did as Cortes asked. 

Guarded by Spaniards, and wearing his imperial 
mantle of white and blue, clasped by a great green stone 
like an emerald, and his golden sandals and tiara, the 
unhappy monarch mounted to the roof of his father's 
palace, now the Spanish quarters, from which he could 
easily be seen and heard by the besieging mob. As soon 
as the Mexicans saw him they stopped fighting and 
fell on the ground in their old-time humility. All 
waited in silence for him to speak. 

They were hoping for words befitting their first war- 

128 



THE KEVOLT OF THE AZTECS 

chief, but they wert^' disappointed. Montezuma told 
them again the unlikely story that he had taken up his 
abode with the Spaniards of his own free will. He 
begged them to lay down their arms and let the Span- 
iards depart. 

Yells and groans of derision went up from the popu- 
lace. 

"Base Aztec, woman, coward !" they shouted. "You 
are a woman-slave to the Spaniards, fit only to weave 
and spin!" A shower of missiles emphasized their 
words. One stone hit Montezuma on the head; two 
others also struck him. He fell unconscious on the 
ground and the Spaniards carried him below. The 
Mexicans, horrified at their own act, cried dismally and 
dispersed. For the first time since the siege the streets 
were empty. 

When Montezuma came to himself, nothing could 
console him. He knew himself the despised of his 
people, and he no longer wished to live. His wounds 
were not serious, and the Spaniards did their best to 
take care of him; but he tore away all his bandages, 
refused food and drink, and a few days later died of a 
broken heart! To the last he refused the religion of 
the Christians. "I have but a few moments to live," he 
said, when Father Olmedo sought to convert him on his 
death-bed, "and I will not at this hour desert the faith 
of my fathers!" But he died, apparently, without 
bitterness towards the Spaniards, commending to Cortes 

129 



MEXICO 

the care of his two daughters, and asking that they 
should have a part of his inheritance. 

"Your lord will do this," he said, "if it were only 
for the friendly offices I have rendered the Spaniards, 
and for the love I have shown them, — though it has 
brought me to this condition ! But for this I bear them 
no ill-will." 

"The tidings of his death were received vnth real 
grief by every cavalier and soldier in the army who had 
access to his person," says Bernal Diaz, "for we all loved 
him as a father, — and no wonder, seeing how good he 
was to us." 

Poor Montezuma, victim of his own superstitious 
weakness and of a strange and dark destiny ! With him 
perished the pride and glory of the Mexican kings. 
He had lived "to see his empire melt away like the 
winter's wreath; to see a strange race drop, as it were, 
from the clouds on his land" ; and death was the greatest 
boon that had happened to him since first the iron hoofs 
of the Spanish horses rang in the streets of his capital. 
It is said that the Spaniards gave his body to the 
Aztecs, who buried it with all respect at Chapultepec; 
but another tradition has it that his corpse was dashed 
to pieces by his enraged people. 

The disgrace and death of Montezuma destroyed the 
last hope of the Spanish that the Mexicans might relent. 
From now on, all depended upon their own desperate 
valor. It became necessary that they should stop some- 

130 



THE KEVOLT OF THE AZTECS 

how the shower of missiles and fire-hrands which 
rained upon them from the roof of the great temple 
which stood directly opposite their quarters. Here 
were intrenched a body of five or six hundred Mexican 
warriors, many of them nobles of the highest rank. 
After several unsuccessful attempts which had taken 
place without him, Cortes himself led a storming party. 
Step by step they fought their way through the Mex- 
ican crowds, across the temple courtyard slippery with 
blood, and began the ascent of the many steps. The 
warriors upon the roof hurled great stones and masses 
of burning wood upon them. Many Spaniards fell, 
but the rest pressed on and reached the top. There, 
on the platform sacred to the war-god, the white-faced 
warriors from the East and the coppery-skinned ones 
of the West engaged in terrible combat. There was no 
railing to this dizzy platform, and hundreds, in the 
heat of fighting, sometimes opposing warriors locked in 
each other's arms, fell from its sides and were dashed 
to pieces on the stones of the courtyard below. Cortes 
himself, it is said, nearly perished in this way. Two 
Indians seized hold of him and dragged him to the 
edge, but he tore himself away from their grasp and 
sent one of them flying in his stead over the edge. 

The battle lasted for three hours, but at the end of 
that time not one of the Aztec warriors was left alive 
to tell the story of their gallant struggle ! The Span- 
iards had paid for their victory dearly, for forty-five 

131 



MEXICO 

of their best men had perished. Still, they had the 
satisfaction of tearing the hideous statue of the war- 
god, surrounded by smoking human hearts, out of its 
sanctuary, and hurling it down the steps to destruc- 
tion; and they set fire to the cursed temple, with its 
atmosphere of blood and woe. 

That night they made another sortie and burned three 
hundred houses. Cortes hoped now that the Aztecs 
would listen to proposals of peace, but they were un- 
shakable. They did not care, they told him through 
Marina, if a thousand Mexicans were killed, as long 
as they had the blood of a single white man in re- 
venge. 

"Our numbers are scarcely diminished by our losses. 
Yours, on the contrary, are lessening every hour. You 
are perishing from hunger and sickness. Your pro- 
visions and water are failing. You must soon fall into 
our hands. The bridges are hrohen down, and you 
cannot escape!'' 

The words fell like the clap of doom on the Span- 
iards' ears. There was dismay in the camp. The 
former followers of J^arvaez cursed the day that they 
had ever joined Cortes; but his own veterans kept 
steady heads and looked to him to lead them out of their 
danger. They and he decided that their only hope lay 
in cutting their way out of the city. On the night of 
the thirtieth of June, 1520, a little before midnight, 
everything was ready for the attempt. A portable 

132 



THE KEVOLT OF THE AZTECS 

bridge had been made, by which they hoped to cross 
the three ditches of the Tlacopan causeway. The gold 
and treasure of the palace was divided among the men, 
but Cortes cautioned them not to take enough to bur- 
den them in their flight. Marina was put in charge 
of the faithful Tlascallan allies. 

,It was a dark, drizzling night. Stealthily the Span- 
iards crept out of their courtyard and into the city. 
The streets were quiet and deserted, the populace was 
apparently asleep. They had almost reached the 
causeway, when suddenly a woman's shriek rang out 
upon the still air. In a moment the alarm was taken 
up. The serpent-skin drum watched over by some 
lonely priest at the otherwise deserted temple boomed 
in hideous warning, and Mexican warriors from all 
sides, springing to arms, instantly responded with shrill 
cries. 

Cutting the causeway the Spaniards proposed to 
cross were three wide ditches. To surmount these the 
portable bridge had been prepared. Sandoval with a 
number of foot-soldiers was in the van. The bridge 
was put in place across the first ditch. The Spaniards 
began to cross. But before many had passed over In- 
dian arrows whizzed in showers about their heads and 
the Aztecs, springing from multitudes of canoes which 
had appeared as if by magic upon the waters, climbed 
upon the causeway and pulled the Spaniards down. 
The front ranks of the Spaniards cut through the enemy 

133 



MEXICO 

and passed on, while the rest followed in a slow pro- 
cession across the narrow bridge; but soon the fore- 
most came to the second canal, which they could not 
pass, and meanwhile they were set upon furiously by 
the Indians. They sent to the rear for the portable 
bridge; but, alas, that had been so wedged into the 
ground by the heavy weight of the men and the artil- 
lery crossing over it that it could not be moved. The 
Spaniards were trapped! An impassable canal in 
front of them, the enemy on their sides and rear. All 
order was lost. The causeway became the scene of a 
nightmarish struggle, those in front plunging desper- 
ately into the dark waters of the canal, those behind 
pressing upon their slowly-moving comrades and tram- 
pling them under foot until the way was still further 
choked with heaps of bodies. All about, hosts of yell- 
ing, triumphant Aztecs, flinging stones and arrows in- 
cessantly, attacking with war-clubs, and, whenever pos- 
sible, dragging the Christians down into the water and 
taking them away in canoes for the horrible sacrifice. 
Hideous was the clamor which arose upon the still 
night air, the groans and shrieks of the Spaniards, the 
wild war-cries of the Indians, the neighing of the ter- 
rified horses, and over all, the portentous booming of 
the great war-drum of the temple. 

Finally, the second ditch became choked up by the 
wreck of ammunition wagons, guns, baggage, an^ dead 
bodies of men, and over this horrible mixture the rest 

134 



THE REVOLT OF THE AZTECS 

of the army crossed. But there was still the third 
opening, a wide and deep one, to traverse. Desper- 
ately the cavaliers plunged in, on horseback, and the 
infantry followed as best they could, swimming or 
clinging to the horses' tails. Many perished here be- 
cause they were overweighted with the gold they had 
greedily gathered up, heedless of Cortes' warning. A 
number of them gained the shore, among them Cortes, 
who had been doing his best to encourage the others 
and bring order out of the confusion. But no sooner 
did he reach the further shore than he. heard that the 
rearguard was in great danger, and he with Sandoval 
and other gallant officers hurried back to help them, 
swimming the ditches and working their way through 
the frantic crowd as best they might. Dawn found 
Alvarado, unhorsed, with a few of his followers sur- 
rounded by countless numbers of Indians, on the other 
side of the ditch. His plight seemed hopeless, since 
to plunge into the waters thronged with enemy canoes 
was certain death; but suddenly the "Sun," with the 
courage of despair, thrust his long lance into the ground 
and vaulted over the tremendous chasm safely. 

Indians and Christians alike gasped. 

"This is truly Tonatiuh, the child of the Sun," 
exclaimed the Aztecs. 

To this day the place of Alvarado's Leap, now a 
part of a solid street, is pointed out to strangers by 
the inhabitants of Mexico. 

135 



MEXICO 

The survivors, including Cortes, straggled along the 
road to the little village of Popotla. There Cortes 
rested on the steps of a temple and, as he surveyed the 
forlorn remnant of his troops, gave way and wept bit- 
terly. In that ^'iToche Triste," the "Sad Night,'^ as 
it is still called, the Spaniards had lost probably about 
four hundred and fifty of their men, twenty-six horses 
and about four thousand of the Indian allies. The 
tree under which Cortes wept still grows out in the 
suburb of Popotla. 



CHAPTEK XI 
THE AZTEC GODS DEPAKT FOKEYEK 

As the dawn came, the broken but not broken-spir- 
ited little army, Cortes at the head, pressed forward 
to Otoncalpolco. They drove out the natives who were 
guarding the temple there, and entered its shelter to 
rest and dress their wounds. The chivalrous San- 
doval, the reckless Alvarado, and faithful Marina, had 
somehow miraculously survived the misfortunes of the 
day. Montezuma's two sons had been killed. 

For several days and nights Cortes with his little 
army advanced along a strange road north of the cap- 
ital, harassed by hostile natives, who set upon them 
from the defiles with stones, arrows and lances. One 
morning they came suddenly upon an open plain, where 
a vast army lay in wait for them. Jt was the valley 
of Otumba, and the army had been sent by Cuitlahua, 
Montezuma's brother, now in charge of the City of 
Mexico, who had been kept informed of Cortes' move- 
ments. Their numbers were so many that it seemed 
hopeless for the Spaniards to attack them, especially 
in their wounded and exhausted condition, but the little 

137 



MEXICO 

band hesitated only a few minutes, and at the word 
of command from Cortes dashed forward, the cavalry 
in the lead, to cut a way through the midst of the vast 
crowd. !N'ever apparently was there a more hopeless 
undertaking; for hours the Spaniards fought as des- 
perately as if against waves of the sea, for no matter 
how many natives were struck down, countless more 
pressed forward. The leaders, Cortes, Oli, Alvarado, 
and Sandoval, were everywhere, keeping up the hearts 
of their men. ^^It was above all glorious to hear the 
brave and spirited Sandoval cry out, ^On, my fellow- 
soldiers, this day the victory must be ours ! Our trust 
is in God! We shall not lose our lives here, for God 
has destined us for better things !' '^ Bernal Diaz tells 
us. 

At last the chief of the army was seen, clothed in 
armor shining with gold, with white head plumes, bear- 
ing the banner of Tenochtitlan, and guarded by the 
most aristocratic and richly dressed of the young war- 
riors. With one of his sudden inspirations, Cortes 
saw in him their one chance of success. Lance in hand, 
he urged forward his charger and making a rush, struck 
him off his litter, and caused him to drop his ban- 
ner, while the other Spanish officers took care of the 
attendants. One of the Spaniards seized the banner 
and handed it to Cortes. From that moment the bat- 
tle was won, since the Mexicans, seeing their chief 
overthrown as by a miracle, and their banner in the 

138 



THE AZTEC GODS DEPAKT FOKEVEE 

hands of Cortes, thought the enemy indeed invincible, 
and fled. This hatfet^^^n^NOtumba, which took place on 
the eighth of Jul^jJ 1820yis one of the most remarkable 
in all history. 

Much encouraged, the Spaniards pressed on to Tlas- 
calla, not far away, and found the Tlascallans still 
faithful friends. General Xicotencatl, indeed, wished 
to destroy the Spaniards, but the old blind chief, his 
father, blind in more ways than one, opposed him bit- 
terly for this desire and sent him out of the council. 
The Spaniards rested in Tlascalla and recovered from 
their wounds, and presently there came to Cortes am- 
bassadors from Ixtlilxochitl, the King of Texcuco, of- 
fering to raise for him a large army if he would re- 
turn and invade Mexico. You will remember that the 
Texcucans had always been jealous of the Mexicans. 
Cortes accepted the offer, in spite of the protests of 
Narvaez' men, who had had enough of Mexican cam- 
paigns and wished to go back to Cuba. They and some 
of the other soldiers presented a protest in form to 
the general, who replied, 

"What is this I hear? Is it true that you would 
retire from the fertile fields of 'New Spain — you, Span- 
iards, Castilians, Christians? leave the shiploads of 
gold which in the Aztec capital we saw and handled? 
leave standing the abominable idols with their blood- 
stained ministers, and tamely summon others to en- 
joy the riches and glory which you are too craven to 

139 



MEXICO 

grasp? Alas for your patriotism, your duty to your 
emperor and your God! Alas for the honor of the 
Spanish arms! Go all who will; abandon your sa- 
cred trusts, and with them the wealth in mines and 
tributes, and the fair estates awaiting you. For my- 
seK, if left alone, then alone will I remain, and take 
command of Indians, since my Spanish followers have 
all turned cowards!" Fired by this speech, Cortes' 
old comrades declared they would not permit a man 
to leave for the coast. 

The army was mustered out at a village near Tlas- 
calla; it included 450 Spaniards, with about 20 horses, 
a few firelocks and field pieces, cross-bows, swords and 
pikes. There were about 6000 Tlascallans, and still 
more Indians sent from Texcuco. Reinforcements 
later brought the number of Spaniards up to 900, and 
increased the horsemen and artillery. An important 
feature of the preparations was brigantines built in 
Tlascalla, and carried in pieces on the shoulders of 
Indians to Lake Texcuco. The Spanish advanced to 
Texcuco, entering there on December 31, 1520. 

Cortes managed in a few months by negotiations and 
force of arms to bring the lake provinces and towns in 
the valley of Mexico under his control. This was the 
easier since many of them had for a long time hated 
the Aztecs on account of their arrogance and cruelty. 

The siege of Mexico began during the last of May, 
1521, when the brigantines, having been carried all the 

140 



THE AZTEC GODS DEPAKT FOREVEE 

way from Tlascalla, were launched in the lake. A 
long description of this siege would be too painful to 
read, so we will pass over it as quickly as possible. It 
lasted for eighty days. Again and again the Span- 
iards penetrated to the heart of the city, only to be 
driven back again to their encampments. The Mex- 
icans were desperate, and fought like rats in a trap. 
The narrow streets, and the isolation of the houses by 
moats and drawbridges helped the defense, in pre- 
venting the spread of fire and making it easy for the 
natives to attack the Spanish troops from the houses 
and roofs. Finally the Spanish and the allies, by 
Cortes^ orders, tore down every building as they cap- 
tured it, and filled up every channel as they advanced. 
Jn this way they slowly turned the beautiful city into 
a place of desolation. 

^^Raze and tear down," the Aztecs called to the al- 
lies when they saw them at this work, ''raze and tear 
down, ye slaves, but all must be rebuilt with your own 
hands for the victor!" 

Meanwhile the brigantines sailed about the lake, 
helping the soldiers with their cannonading and sink- 
ing countless Aztec canoes. 

At first the Mexicans had plenty of provisions, but 
as the siege wore on, these failed and the people be- 
came gaunt and weak from hunger. They no longer 
cared whether they lived or died; the warriors fought 
more desperately, the women and children and old men 

141 



MEXICO 

were cut down like slaughtered sheep. They were liv- 
ing on snails, lizards and rats, the scum of the waters, 
roots, and weeds. One by one, their streets and houses 
were falling into the possession of the enemy. The 
palace of Axayacatl, the former Spanish headquarters, 
was razed to the ground, the beautiful House of the 
Birds had fallen. The market had been taken by Al- 
varado and his men, and again the Spaniards had 
hurled the idols from the temple overlooking it. The 
besieged were now huddled into one quarter, the dead, 
the dying, and those almost dying from hunger, wounds 
and fatigue, crowded all together. 

The leader of the defense in the City of Mexico was 
Guatemozin, a brave young prince, hardly twenty years 
old, who had succeeded Cuitlahua, Montezuma's 
brother, who had died of the small-pox, which, intro- 
duced by ]^arvaez' men, was then raging through the 
unfortunate country. Guatemozin had married one of 
Montezuma's daughters. He was not only courageous, 
but intelligent, and put up the best defense possible 
under the circumstances. Many times during the 
siege Cortes sent messages to him, begging him to make 
a surrender on honorable terms and save his people fur- 
ther suffering. Guatemozin would have none of him. 

"Tell Malinche that I and mine elect to die. We 
will entrust ourselves neither to the men who commit 
nor the god who permits such atrocities!" was his an- 
swer. 

142 



THE AZTEC GODS DEPAET FOKEVEK 

The Spaniards suffered much from wounds, exhaus- 
tion and hunger during the siege, but the thing they 
most dreaded was the hollow, mournful boom of the 
serpent skin drum on the summit of the temple, and 
the ^'hellish music," as Bernal Diaz calls it, of the 
shell trumpets, horns and other barbaric instruments 
which announced the hours of sacrifice. Erom the 
Spanish camps could plainly be seen all the horrible 
proceedings: the white, naked bodies of the Spanish 
captives as, with feathers in their hair, they were forced 
to dance on the platform of the temple, and then the 
sacrifice, one by one, on the curved stone, and the dead 
bodies rolled down the steps of the temple. The re- 
membrance of these things made the invaders fight all 
the more fiercely, in order at all events not to be taken 
alive. 

At last the Mexicans made a desperate attack from 
all quarters at once upon the besiegers, but though at 
first the Spanish were thrown into confusion, they 
rallied and recovered, killing or capturing an enormous 
number of Aztecs. 

As things became more and more hopeless, many of 
the starving Mexicans and their chiefs wished for peace 
at any price. Guatemozin and the higher chiefs still 
held out. One morning Sandoval, who had been or- 
dered by Cortes to watch the lake, spied a very hand- 
somely ornamented canoe crossing at the further end 
and ordered one of his captains to give chase. As it 

143 



MEXICO 

did not stop when signaled, the Spaniards were about 
to fire on it, when one of the passengers stood up and 
said, 

^Torbid your men to shoot at me! I am the King 
of Mexico. I only beg of you not to touch my wife, 
my children, these women, or anything else I have with 
me here, but take me alone to Malinche." 

The royal captive was esQorted with all honors to 
Cortes. He was a dignified, grave, young man, with 
features worn with suffering and large, brilliant eyes. 
Walking with a firm step into the presence of his enemy, 
he said, 

"Malinche, I have done all within my power for the 
defense of my people; but the gods have not favored 
me. My empire is gone, my city is destroyed, and my 
vassals are dead. For what have I to live? Now 
draw the dagger which hangs at your belt, and plunge 
it into my bosom." He touched a dagger at Cortes' 
belt. 

"Fear not," replied Cortes. "You shall be treated 
with all honor. You have defended your capital like 
a brave warrior. A Spaniard knows how to respect 
valor even in an enemy." He gave orders that Guate- 
mozin and his family should be given the food they 
sorely needed and shown every mark of distinction. 

With the surrender of its valiant chief the siege of 
the City of Mexico came to an end. On that night a 
terrific storm of thunder and lightning raged over the 

144 



THE AZTEC GODS DEPAET EOEEVEK 

desolated city, shaking the mined houses, flooding the 
pestilential streets and illuminating the whole scene of 
desolation with a series of ghastly flashes. The an- 
cient gods were taking their departure in fury, leaving 
the city forever to the tender mercies of the white 
strangers ! 

^ever, in any story, has there been a more extraor- 
dinary exploit than this conquest of Mexico. That a 
band of white men, so few in number, should even 
dare to make their way through so many miles of rough 
and unknown country, swarming with strange tribes, 
to visit, against his express command, a monarch se- 
curely protected in his own city in the midst of a vast 
number of devoted subjects — that in itself is strange 
enough; that these white men should actually capture 
the monarch in his own palace and take him prisoner 
to their quarters makes the exploits of the heroes of 
dime-novels pale and uninteresting; but that, after the 
whole population of the city had risen against them as 
one man, they should escape, and once again, after tre- 
mendous losses, return, put the city to the siege and 
capture it, is almost unbelievable. And yet we must 
remember that the success of the Spaniards was not 
alone due to their audacity and strength of arms, great 
as these were. The Mexicans were conquered by na- 
tives of their own country as much as by the white 
man. It was Mexican haughtiness and Mexican 
cruelty which laid the train of gunpowder to which the 

145 



MEXICO 

Spaniards applied the match. If the coast natives had 
not been well disposed towards the Spaniards; if Tlas- 
calla, so long harassed by the cruel Aztec armies, had 
not formed a safe base and retreating point for the 
foreigners, and given them her warriors in great num- 
bers; if the Indians of the Valley of Mexico had not 
been divided among themselves on account of the ex- 
actions of the dominant tribe, Mexico would never 
have fallen. 

In a thousand acts of injustice and cruelty to con- 
quered tribes, in a million sacrifices of war-captives, 
Mexico had written her own doom. 



CHAPTEE XII 
AFTER THE CONQUEST 

The Mexicans obtained permission from Cortes to 
leave the wreck of their once-beautiful city, and a 
ghastly procession of starving women and children and 
wounded men straggled along the causeways to the 
green fields beyond. The Spaniards at once set about 
their task of cleaning the city. Huge bonfires were 
lighted in the streets, and heaps of corpses buried. 

During all the seventy-five days of siege the Span- 
iards had only lost about one hundred men. The allies 
lost great numbers, and it is believed that about a hun- 
dred thousand Mexicans fell by the sword, and many 
more from famine and disease. 

The Spanish soldiers roamed about the street of 
Tenochtitlan looking for the treasure which was sup- 
posed to be hid there in such vast quantities. But very 
little was found. Even the gold and rich stuffs they 
had carried themselves from the palace of Axayacatl 
and lost in the struggle on the causeway on the "Sad 
[NTight" were mostly lacking. The disappointment of 
the soldiers was great. Of what use had all their strug- 

147 



MEXICO 

gles and sufferings been if they were not to be made 
rich by them? They looked angrily at the captive 
King, Guatemozin. He surely must know where the 
treasure was hid. Perhaps he had some secret under- 
standing with Cortes to share it with him and say 
nothing about it. These suspicions, hinted to Cortes, 
cut him to the quick ; and when the furious soldiers de- 
manded the torture of Guatemozin to force him to con- 
fess the whereabouts of his riches, Cortes, to his ever- 
lasting shame, consented. Guatemozin and the chief 
of Tacuba were tortured together, by having their feet 
immersed in boiling oil. Guatemozin endured his suf- 
fering with the greatest stoicism. 

"Think you I am enjoying my bath ?" he inquired 
ironically, when the other chief groaned. 

The Spaniards got no satisfaction from either of 
them. Guatemozin said that the treasure had been 
buried underneath the waters of the lake, while the 
king of Tacuba confessed that a part of it was buried 
in the grounds of one of his villas. But it was not 
found there, and divers in the lake never recovered 
anything of much value. To this day, people in Mex- 
ico believe that the gold the Spaniards fought for so 
fiercely lies hidden in the soft mud at the bottom of 
Lake Texcuco. 

Cortes decided to make his capital on the site of the 
old city, and the work of rebuilding went quickly for- 
ward. Conquered Mexicans and the allies who had 

148 



AFTEE THE CONQUEST 

helped conquer them were alike forced to labor. The 
Aztec prophecy with which they taunted the allies dur- 
ing the siege had come true. 

Now came messengers from all Mexico to pay their 
respects to this wonderful conqueror. One of these 
was the King of Michoacan, that great western prov- 
ince which had never been conquered by the Aztecs, 
who gazed in awe at the Spanish war-chief who had 
tamed the thunder and lightning and razed the tem- 
ples and houses of proud Tenochtitlan. He allowed 
the Spaniards to explore his territory, and they gained 
their first glimpse of the great Southern ocean, and 
brought back specimens of gold and California pearls. 
Cortes instantly determined to plant colonies on the 
Gulf of California, not far from which, he hoped, were 
the isles of the Indies, teeming with gold and pearls 
and spices. He also sent expeditions, under Sandoval 
and Alvarado, to explore some of the provinces to the 
south of the Cordilleras, which were still hostile, and 
bring them under Spanish control. 

After some delay, due to the intrigues of Velasquez, 
who was madly jealous of Cortes and everything he had 
done, Cortes was made Governor, Captain-General, and 
Chief Justice of New Spain, as Mexico was now called. 
His officers were also rewarded with honors and lands, 
and the soldiers promised grants of land. Velasquez 
was so disgusted with this success of his rival that he 
fell into melancholy and shortly after died, it is said, 

149 



MEXICO 

of a broken heart. Dona Catalina Xuarez, Cortes' 
wife, came to Mexico to share the success of her hus- 
band. Rumor says that he received her coldly, though 
with all outward honor. The climate of the tableland 
did not suit the poor lady, and in three months she 
died. People hinted that Cortes poisoned her. There 
is not the slightest foundation for this rumor, but he 
realized that Marina, who loved him so devotedly and 
had helped him so much during the Conquest, was the 
innocent cause of the talk and that she must be got 
out of the way. 

About this time he set out with many of his soldiers 
on an expedition to Honduras, to quell a revolt that 
had arisen there under his officer Christoval de Olid, 
who, sent by Cortes to plant a colony, had set up an 
independent government. On this long trip Marina 
accompanied her Captain for the last time as inter- 
preter. On the way they passed through her native 
province, Coatzacualco, and Cortes halted for some days 
there to hold a conference with the chiefs. To this 
conference came the ^'princess," Marina's mother, and 
her son. Marina, as usual, was at Cortes' side, in- 
terpreting. Her likeness to the ^'princess" and the chief 
struck every one ; Marina's mother instantly recognized 
her and was filled with terror. But Marina, in the 
sweetest way, instantly raised her from her knees where 
she had fallen, and embraced her, giving her the orna- 
ments and jewels she was wearing. She told her rela- 

150 



AFTEK THE CONQUEST 

tives that "she felt much happier than before, now 
that she had been instructed in the Christian faith and 
given up the bloody worship of the Aztecs." 

Farther on in the route, Cortes married Marina with 
all due ceremony to one of his soldiers, Juan Xara- 
millo. What she felt we do not know. It is said that 
she never lived with her soldier husband, but went back 
to her native province, where she passed the rest of 
her days. She died a long while before the Conqueror. 
It is said by the Indians that her spirit still watches 
over the Capital that she helped to win, and that her 
ghost, in all the robes of an Indian princess, is seen 
sometimes at night flitting through the groves of the 
hill of Chapultepec. 

Cortes took Guatemozin and the chief of Tacuba 
with him on this same trip to Honduras, since they 
were too important and dangerous personages to be left 
behind. On the way, an Indian told him that a con- 
spiracy to massacre the Spaniards in a narrow defile 
was being hatched, and that Guatemozin and the other 
chief were at the head of it. In vain did the unfortu- 
nate lords declare their innocence. Cortes had found 
them a burden for a long time, and now he took this 
pretext to put them both out of the way. They were 
hanged from the branches of a great cypress-tree on 
the trail. Guatemozin's splendid courage never fal- 
tered. 

"I knew what it was to trust to your false prom- 

151 



MEXICO 

ises, Malinche/' he said, just before he died. "I knew 
that you had destined me to this fate, since I did not 
fall by my own hand when you entered my city of 
Tenochtitlan. Why do you slay me so unjustly ? God 
will demand it of you !" 

It is said that Cortes brooded over this deed; that 
he could not sleep at night, and became moody and ir- 
ritable and unlike himself. 

The hardships of this trip to Honduras were almost 
unbelievable; they far surpassed those of the expedi- 
tions before the Conquest. It was the rainy season 
and countless swollen streams had to be crossed. Many 
times they had to stop to make bridges, and once they 
constructed a bridge of a thousand pieces of timber, 
each as thick as a man and sixty feet long, all cut by 
themselves from the forest. Then there were great 
forests to be penetrated and mountain ranges traversed, 
and at the last even their guides deserted them. They 
passed through the beautiful capital of Aculan, whose 
name is to be found on no map — Aculan was a prov- 
ince which carried on a thriving commerce with the 
farthest parts of Central America — and went on. to 
the Lake of Peten, then occupied by Mayas, who had 
built their city on an island of the lake. These were 
supposedly converted to Christianity by the Franciscan 
friars who accompanied Cortes. One of the Spanish 
horses, which had been disabled, was left here. The 
Indians treated the animal with the greatest 'distinc- 

152 



AFTEK THE CONQUEST 

tion and gave him delicious dishes of poultry and other 
delicacies to eat such as they would have given to a sick 
person. The poor animal, not relishing such fare, 
pined away and died, and the Indians, frightened he- 
cause they had offended him, made an image of him 
in stone, placed it in one of their temples, and wor- 
shiped it as a deity. Some years later, friars who 
visited the place found the image being worshiped as 
the god of thunder and lightning! 

Reaching Honduras, Cortes found Olid already dead 
and the country at peace; but about this time rumors 
reached him of an uprising in the City of Mexico, where 
his enemies, proclaiming him dead, had taken control 
of the government and were confiscating his property 
and that of other of the Conquerors. He attempted to 
go back by sea, was nearly shipwrecked twice, but 
finally reached Vera Cruz and made his way to the 
capital, where he created as much astonishment as if 
he had been raised from the dead. He soon quelled 
the anarchy; but from now on his enemies succeeded 
in making his life miserable. 

To stop the reports against him, Cortes went to 
Spain to see the Emperor. The returned Conqueror 
made a great sensation in his own country; people 
flocked from far and wide to get a glimpse of the 
bronzed and scarred hero, who had won an empire for 
Castile; and Cortes' unaffected manners and geniality 
won him friends everywhere. Some Indian chieftans, 

153 



MEXICO 

including a son of Montezuma, and another of Maxixca 
of Tlascalla, in their gorgeous feather robes with plumes 
in their hair, shared the attention paid to Cortes; and 
there were also in his train a number of Indian jug- 
glers, dancers and jesters who astonished the Euro- 
peans and were thought worthy of being sent as a pres- 
ent to the Pope. 'Now that Cortes had actually ap- 
peared, to give the lie to all the slanders about him, 
and was creating so great a sensation in the country- 
side, the emperor decided to receive him graciously, 
and showed him great favor. Moreover, he made him 
Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca, a very rich tract of 
land in Mexico. But he would not give Cortes the civil 
government of the country he had conquered, for it 
was against the policy of the Spanish crown to give 
conquerors such power. A Viceroy was appointed to 
govern the colony; but Cortes was made Captain-Gen- 
eral of New Spain and of the coasts of the South Sea 
and given gracious permission to discover as many 
more new countries as he could, at his own expense. 

While on this visit Cortes married a very young 
and beautiful noblewoman, Dona Juana de Zuniga. 
His wedding gift to her was five emeralds, which were 
among the few Aztec treasures saved on the "Sad 
JSTight.'' They were of great size and brilliancy and 
wonderfully cut in the shapes of flowers, fishes and 
other natural objects. Tradition says that the Spanish 
Queen had coveted these treasures for herself and was 

154 



AFTEK THE COITQUEST 

jealous of their being given to the fair young bride, and 
that from then on she hindered the interests of Cortes at 
court. Cortes, soon tired of idleness, even under such 
pleasant circumstances, returned to Mexico the next 
year, with his wife and mother (his father had died 
just before he reached Spain) and took up his resi- 
dence in the beautiful city of Cuernavaca on the south- 
ern slope of the Cordilleras, where he had built a stately 
palace. Here, for a while, he busied himself in agri- 
culture, introducing the sugar-cane, mulberry-trees for 
the silk-worm industry, sheep and cattle; and he also 
developed gold and silver mines on his estate. But 
even this was not occupation enough for him, and he 
set off to explore the Southern Ocean, hoping to find 
the fabled islands of the Indies, and also a strait con- 
necting the Atlantic with the Pacific. He endured 
great hardships and did not make any notable discov- 
eries, while the expenses of the expeditions, which he 
paid out of his own pocket, and for which he even 
pawned his wife's jewels, nearly ruined him. He also 
sent expeditions to the north. They discovered Cal- 
ifornia, but failed to find any gold. He went to Spain 
again to settle some disputes which had arisen in con- 
nection with his explorations, and to get remunera- 
tion for the sums he had spent, but, though he was 
politely received, his affairs dragged and nothing was 
done to satisfy him. He joined in an expedition 
against Algiers, the ship he was in was wrecked, he and 

155 



MEXICO 

his son had to swim to the shore and the five emeralds 
which he was carrying, the most valuable of all the 
treasures of Montezuma, were lost. On this campaign 
the veteran Conqueror was treated with little consid- 
eration. The siege was unsuccessful, and it was de- 
cided to abandon it. Cortes was most unwilling. 

^'Had I but a handful of my veterans from l^ew 
Spain here, they would not long stay outside of yon- 
der fortress !'' 

"Indeed, senor, no doubt you would accomplish won- 
ders; but you would find the Moors quite a different 
foe from your naked savages !" sneered the other of- 
ficers. 

Cortes' further attempts for recognition at court were 
received but coldly. He was getting old, and no mat- 
ter how great his deeds had been, they were all over, 
nothing more could be expected of him. What was 
the use of showing him further favors, reasoned the 
King. Besides, lately, his enterprises had been un- 
successful, and he was really becoming a decided 
nuisance.' And already Pizarro had discovered Peru, 
which was yielding ten times more gold than Mexico 
had yielded silver. So when Cortes addressed his last 
petition to the King, reminding him of all the toils 
and dangers he had undergone in the service of Spain, 
and the nations he had won, and that he was now old, 
infirm and harassed by debt, and longed for a settle- 
ment of his affairs, that "he might stay at home and 

156 



AFTEK THE CONQUEST 

settle his account with Heaven," the pathetic appeal 
had little or no effect. Three more years were passed 
in waiting, and then Cortes resolved to return to Mex- 
ico. He had only reached Seville, accompanied by his 
son, when he fell sick, and troubled in mind as he was, 
found no strength to rally. He died at a village near 
Seville on the second of December, 1547. His remains 
were buried first in the monastery of San Isidro, in 
the family vault of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia, and 
afterwards taken to Mexico, to the monastery of St. 
Erancis, in Texcuco. Some years later they were re- 
moved again with great ceremony to the City of Mex- 
ico, and placed in the church of St. Francis, but again 
in 1794 they were taken out and put in the Hospital 
of Jesus of ]^azareth, which Cortes had founded. But 
in 1823, when Mexico declared her independence of 
Old Spain, a mob threatened to break into this tomb 
and scatter the ashes of the Conqueror to the four 
winds, and to prevent this desecration some friends of 
the family entered the vault at night and removed the 
relics, which were sent to Italy and found a final rest- 
ing-place in the tomb of the Monteleones, who are de- 
scendants of Cortes. 

And so is finished the story of the great Conqueror, 
the man of iron will and boundless courage, who never 
gave up one of his enterprises, though it was wilder 
than the wildest day-dream; who welded together 
into a united and ardent band a crowd of unruly 

1^7 



MEXICO 

desperadoes and avaricious merchants; the man who 
bent millions of strange natives to his purpose, who 
kidnapped an Emperor, and carved out of the un- 
known map of America with his sword "as many 
kingdoms as there were towns in Spain" for his Em- 
peror; the man who, when this great Conquest was 
done, was not content with resting on his well-won es- 
tates, but must set off on new expeditions which sur- 
passed in hardships all that he had undergone. And 
he was not only a conqueror; after the fall of Mexico 
he rebuilt the city in a very stable and splendid man- 
ner, developed the resources of the country, introduced 
the culture of the sugar-cane, orange and grape, and 
would certainly have governed it well if he had been 
left to do so. 

There are several deeds which blot the memory of 
Cortes. He was pitiless when the necessities of con- 
quest demanded it; but he never permitted the natives 
to be outraged or ill-treated after they were conquered, 
and on the whole he was not cruel. That the natives 
liked him was seen by the way they flocked to greet 
him when he returned to Mexico from Honduras after 
he had been reported dead. He was in advance of his 
age in having grave doubts as to the right of any one 
to hold slaves, and in his will he pnjoined it on his 
son and his heirs to "spare no pains to come to an ex- 
act knowledge of the truth [on this point], as a mat- 

158 



AFTEE THE COI^QUEST 

ter which deeply concerns the conscience of each of 
them, no less than mine." 

It must never be forgotten of Cortes that he was 
deeply religious, as were the rest of his gallant com- 
panions, that he thought he was doing Christ's work 
in rescuing the heathen from their sins, and that he 
would willingly have died at any time in defense of 
his faith. Take him for all and all, he was a man ; and 
withal, one of the most dazzling figures in all history^ 



CHAPTER XIII 

MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS 

Following Cortes^ came a long succession of Vice- 
roys, or Royal Governors, who, helped or hindered by 
the Audencias, the administrative councils also ap- 
pointed by the King, ruled Mexico for three hundred 
years. These were years when zealous priests con- 
verted, superficially at least, a whole nation to Chris- 
tianity — when great cathedrals and churches rose above 
the huts of humble Indians — when Spanish grandees 
lorded it over feudal estates as large, almost, as Span- 
ish provinces — when the terrible Inquisition spread its 
black shadow over the smiling plains of Anahuac — 
when galleons loaded with gold and silver from the 
mines of Mexico sailed to enrich the treasuries of the 
Spanish kings — when pirates flocked in the Spanish 
Main and sacked the coast cities — when lakes flooded 
the rebuilt City of Mexico and made it once again, as 
in old times, an inland Venice. Three hundred years 
of Spanish ambition, magnificence, cruelty and in- 
dolence planted on the ruins of the Aztec civilization 
and basking in the brilliant sunshine of the 'New 

160 



MEXICO UIs^DEE THE VICEKOYS 

World; there we have the history of Mexico under the 
Viceroys. 

They have a charm of their own, these sleepy Span- 
ish centuries, and we shall linger over them a little, 
to hear some of the stories of Saints and Angels who 
seem to have had the country under their special pro- 
tection (though they let some very curious things go 
by without protest), and to trace the beginnings of the 
beautiful cities which now display their Spanish- 
American architecture in the valleys and plains of 
Mexico. As to the sixty-two Viceroys who ^^strutted 
their uneasy hour" upon the Mexican stage, we shall 
account for but few of them; for their Spanish names 
are long and confusing, their deeds are comparatively 
unimportant, and time is precious. 

Yet we must mention the first Viceroy, Mendoza, 
appointed in 1535, who during his fifteen years of gov- 
ernment accomplished much for the country. The In- 
dians were kindly treated during his term, the priests 
winning them over to Christianity by wise and gentle 
measures. The good Bishop Las Casas, whom we 
heard of in Cuba and who fairly earned his title of 
Protector-General of the Indians, came to Mexico at 
this time and labored hard, but without much success, 
to mitigate the cruelty of the Spanish landowners. 
Mendoza also introduced a fine breed of sheep from 
Spain, fostered the silk industry, advanced the com- 
merce, mining and manufactures of the colony, and 

161 



MEXICO 

founded the cities of Guadalajara and Yalladolid (now 
Morelia). During his administration the first book 
ever printed in the ISTew World was produced in the 
City of Mexico in 1536 on a printing-press brought by 
him from Spain. This far antedates the Massachu- 
setts Bay Psalter, thoughtlessly claimed by some his- 
torians as the first book of ]^orth America. During 
the same year silver and copper coins were minted in 
the capital. 

Indeed, Mexico in the sixteenth century, many years 
before the Pilgrims landed on our stern and rock-bound 
coast, was far up among the nations of the world in 
culture and civilization. In 1553 the Poyal Univer- 
sity in the capital opened its doors to a waiting throng 
of students. It was modeled after the University of 
Salamanca in Spain, the finest of the times. Scien- 
tists, artists and literary men brought their works to 
the capital for approval, a fact which indicates the 
presence there of a large number of intelligent people. 
There was even an industrial school, which we think 
of as a distinctly modern innovation. It educated a 
thousand Indian boys in useful arts and crafts. 

The second Viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, was also 
an excellent man. He was called the ' 'Emancipator'' 
because his first official act was the emancipation of 
one hundred and fifty thousand Indian slaves working 
in the mines. "Of more importance than all the mines 
in the world is the liberty of the Indians," he said, 

162 



MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS 

when remonstrated with by the mine-owners for this 
humane deed. Unfortunately, few of the Spaniards in 
power after him had the same sentiments. 

Velasco governed for fourteen years. Jn the in- 
terval between his death and the arrival of his suc- 
cessor, a strange affair took place. Don Martin Cortes, 
the Marques del Valle, Cortes' legitimate son, was ac- 
cused of being at the head of a plot to kill all the 
Spaniards and make himself King of Mexico. He 
was supposed to be aided in this by Don Martin, his 
half brother, the son of Cortes and Marina. The in- 
cident which gave a color to this suspicion shows so 
well the life of the times that it is worth quoting, in 
the interesting account of the historian, Branz Mayer. 

^^The Marques del Valle, heir of Hernando Cortes, 
had been for some time established in the capital, where 
he formed the nucleus of a noble circle, and was ad- 
mired by all classes for the splendor with which he 
maintained the honor of his house. . . . 

^'On the thirtieth of June, 1566, the Dean of the 
Cathedral . . . baptized in that sacred edifice the twin 
daughters of the Marques del Valle. . . . The festivi- 
ties of the gallant Marques upon this occasion of fam- 
ily rejoicing were, as usual, among the rich in Spanish 
countries , attended with the utmost magnificence. 

'^It was a day of general rejoicing and festivity in 
the city of Mexico. Erom the palace of the Marques 
to the door of the Cathedral a passage was formed 

163 



MEXICO 

under lofty and splendid canopies composed of tlie 
richest stuffs. A salute of artillery announced the 
entry of the twins into the church, and it was repeated 
at their departure. At the moment when the rites of 
religion were completed and the infants were borne 
back to their home through the covered way, the spec- 
tators in the plaza were amused by a complete chivalric 
tournament between twelve knights in complete steel. 
Other rare and costly diversions succeeded in an arti- 
ficial grove, which the Marques had caused to be erected 
in the plazuela or lesser square, intervening between 
his palace and the cathedral. !N^or were these amuse- 
ments designed alone for persons of his own rank, for 
the masses of the people were also summoned to par- 
take of his bountiful hospitality. At the doors of his 
princely dwelling, tables were sumptuously spread with 
roasted oxen, all kinds of wild fowl and numberless 
delicacies, whilst two casks of red and white wine, — 
then esteemed in Mexico the most luxurious rarities, — 
were set flowing for the people. 

"At night Alonso Gonzalez de Avila, the intimate 
companion of the Marques, entertained the chief per- 
sonages of Mexico with a splendid ball, during which 
there was a performance or symbolical masque repre- 
senting the reception of Hernando Cortes by the Em- 
peror Montezuma. Alonso, splendidly attired, sus- 
tained the part of the Mexican sovereign. During one 
of the evolutions of the spectacle, Avila threw around 

164 



MEXICO UNDEK THE VICEKOYS 

the neck of the young Marques a collar of intermingled 
flowers and jewels, similar to ^he one with which his 
father had been adorned by Montezuma; and, at the 
conclusion of the scene, he placed on the heads of the 
Marques and his wife a coronet of laurel, with the ex- 
clamation, ^How well these crowns befit your noble 
brows !' " 

This was enough for the jealous members of the 
King's Audencia. They instantly suspected the Mar- 
ques of planning to seize the crown of Mexico, and 
presently managed to find what they considered proofs 
of his treason. He was thrown in prison, as were also 
Don Martin, Alonso Avila and other friends. Two of 
the latter were executed as an example, and Don Mar- 
tin was put to the torture, but the Marques del Valle 
was let off by banishment to Spain. There was more 
danger than advantage at that time in being descended 
from the Conqueror of Mexico ! 

During the rule of the next Viceroy, in the year 
1571, there descended upon unfortunate Mexico the 
Office of the Holy Inquisition, the same power that 
had decreed the burning alive of countless heretics in 
the mother country. Fortunately, the Indians were 
exempt from its cruel edicts; but in the two centuries 
and a half that it existed in Mexico — that is, till 1815 
— it caused the death of a number of Protestants at 
the quemadero (burning place) at the western end of 
the city. Usually the victims were strangled to death 

165 



MEXICO 

before being burnt. The Dominicans were responsible 
for this hated institution, which did much to bring 
about the downfall of the Spanish rule in Mexico. 

In 1572, the Jesuits arrived in New Spain, and the 
next year the building of the Cathedral of the City of 
Mexico was begun, upon a site just behind where the 
old Aztec temple had stood. This Cathedral, one of 
the show places of Mexico, was not finished till 1730. 
The Jesuits were expelled from Mexico by order of 
the Spanish King in 1767. They had made them- 
selves beloved by the people, who greatly regretted their 
going. 

Aside from the Inquisition, the influence of the 
Church in Mexico was beneficial during the first cen- 
tury of Spanish rule, and the missionaries labored un- 
selfishly and with great zeal to convert the natives from 
their old bloody religion to the gentle Christian faith. 
In many cases, while changing the main doctrines, they 
allowed the Indians to keep the minor ceremonies of 
their former paganism, and to this day in Mexico there 
are strange rites mingled with the church services and 
handed down from the dim ages of the past, and idols 
in the churches which the priests do not dare to re- 
move. The courage of the missionaries during this 
first century knew no bounds; they were eager to ex- 
plore the farthest limits of the country to gain new 
tribes for the Faith. The Jesuits and the Francis- 
cans were- the chief actors in the romantic stories of 

166 



MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS 

the settlement of JSTew Mexico, Arizona, Texas and 
California, and it was under their direction that the 
willing Indians huilt the picturesque old mission 
churches and cloisters which delight tourists through 
our southwest to-day. 

Floating about from mouth to mouth at this period 
was the Indian legend of the wondrous Seven Cities 
of Cibola, many miles to the north, where whole streets 
were peopled by goldsmiths. It tantalized more than 
one gold-hungry Viceroy of New Spain, and several 
expeditions were sent out from the City of Mexico to 
find them. A priest, the Friar Marcos, was one of the 
first to go, accompanied only by a negro and a few 
Indians. When he reached the entrance to the valley 
of the Sonora River, he sent the negro on ahead with 
instructions to send him a cross a palm in length if he 
discovered anything, and a cross two palms in length 
if he found a "great thing," and a large cross if he 
heard of a country "greater and better than New 
Spain." In four days back came a messenger with a 
cross as high as a man, and a wonderful tale of a coun- 
try thirty days to the north where there were seven 
cities made of houses two, three or even four stories 
in height, whose doorways were covered with tur- 
quoises ! 

The good priest hastened on, crossing with infinite 
toil the burning sands of the Arizona desert, accom- 
pani d only by a few Indians. But when at last. he 

167 



MEXICO 

reached Cibola, he saw only the mud walls of a Zuni 
village, which boasted neither gold nor silver, indeed 
nothing remarkable but a few turquoises in the neck- 
laces of the squaws. Much disappointed, he returned 
to the City of Mexico. The fascinating legend, how- 
ever, was hard to kill, and shortly afterwards the gal- 
lant adventurer Coronado, with an imposing army of 
Spanish cavaliers, foot-soldiers and Indian allies, set 
out to find the fabled region. But they also discov- 
ered no cities of gold or silver, only the terraced com- 
munal houses of half -naked, hostile Zuiiis; and after 
numerous unpleasant experiences the battered surviv- 
ors at last straggled back to Mexico. The rich min- 
ing region of Durango in northern Mexico was ex- 
plored about that time by priests and mine-hunters, 
and early in the seventeenth century Juan de Onate, a 
mine-owner with a passion for exploration, crossed the 
Rio Grande at El Paso and in 1609 founded the colony 
of Santa Fe, destined to become the oldest city in the 
United States. The Franciscan missionaries kept 
creeping up through the Chihuahua desert, the Jesu- 
its through the Sonora mining region, until they 
reached the isolated colonies of El Paso and Santa Fe, 
and in 1680 in that region there were fifty well-built 
churches. Many of their graceful arches still raise 
themselves above the sands of the deserts, and in one 
instance at least, that of the mission of San Xavier 
del Bac near Tucson, Arizona, the bells in the tower 

168 



MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS 

at a recent date called the faithful Indians to mass as 
they did three centuries ago. 

While the friars were thus spreading religion in the 
north, truly wonderful events from a religious point 
of view, if one may believe the legends, were taking 
place in southern Mexico. One of these was the ap- 
parition of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a story which 
has such a firm hold upon the entire Mexican people 
and figures so largely in their history and modern 
life that we must stop to tell it. The scene of it is 
the village of Guadalupe, a short distance outside of 
the City of Mexico, which has been the point of pil- 
grimage or Mecca of the Mexicans for nearly four 
centuries. 

Away back in the time of the first Viceroy, in the 
year 1531, a poor Indian named Juan Diego was ap- 
proaching one day the Hill of Tepeyacac, but a few 
years before an Aztec place of worship dedicated to 
the Mother-god. All at once he heard a sound of such 
sweet music that it seemed to him it could only be 
made by angels. Raising his eyes to the rocks above 
him, he saw a lovely vision, a lady with a halo of light 
about her head, who told him to inform his Bishop 
she wished a great temple to be built on the hill in her 
honor. While the Indian knelt in awe, the Lady dis- 
appeared. 

Juan Diego hastened to tell the Bishop what had 
happened, but the latter would not believe the story 

169 



MEXICO 

without some proof. Three times the Indian went 
back to the hill and saw the Lady, who repeated her 
request, but would not give him any sign to show the 
Bishop. Then Juan's uncle was taken very ill with a 
fever, and the Indian, after nursing him for two days, 
on the third day hurried oif to find a confessor. He 
was afraid to pass the spot where he had seen the Vir- 
gin, so took a path on the other side of the mountain. 
But lo and behold, the Lady appeared to him there also. 
He told her of his uncle's illness, and she assured him 
that he was ^'quite well again." Then she com- 
manded Juan to cut her some flowers from the bar- 
ren hillside. As Juan looked at the bare rocks hope- 
lessly, he suddenly saw roses springing where no flow- 
ers had ever grovni before. He picked some ; the Lady 
told him to take them to the Bishop as her sign. Juan 
wrapped the blossoms in his tilma, as the Mexican 
blanket is called, and hastened to the Bishop's palace. 
When he reached there and unwrapped his blanket in 
the presence of the Bishop, instead of the flowers they 
beheld a lovely picture of the Virgin, imprinted on the 
blanket in soft, bright colors. And if one doubted this 
story, one had only to go and look in the Church at 
Guadalupe — for there at a recent date was the very 
picture, carefully guarded ! 

From this time on the Virgin of Guadalupe has been 
the beloved patron saint of the Indian population of 
Mexico. She is supposed to watch over them and fight 

170 



MEXICO UNDEK THE VICEKOYS 

their battles for them; indeed, one of the first acts 
of Hidalgo, the leader of the peons in the Revolution, 
was to take her picture from a village church, and 
carry it as a banner throughout the campaign. De- 
cember 12, the day when the Indian gathered the roses, 
is kept in the republic as a national holiday. Every 
year at this season, before the recent Revolutionary dis- 
turbances, the Indians poured into Guadalupe, from 
all parts of the country, on foot, by train and by 
trolley, all their worldly goods, including numerous 
babies, upon their backs. They camped out on the 
bare flags of the court-yard surrounding the great 
church, and took part reverently in all the services. 
"No matter how poor they were, each one bought a can- 
dle to put on the shrine of their dear Virgin of Guad- 
alupe, who gave them all the blessings that they pos- 
sessed ! 

The Spaniards of Mexico also have their patron 
saint, the Virgin of the Remedies, represented by an 
image brought out of Tenochtitlan by a Spanish sol- 
dier on the ^*Sad l^ight," and hidden in an Aztec temple 
where the Spaniards rested. It was discovered in 
1535, a sanctuary was built around it, and it became 
the patron saint of the Spaniards during the three 
centuries of their rule. Our Lady of the Remedies 
was a bitter enemy of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and so 
when the Mexicans triumphed, the country repudiated 
her and she sank into oblivion, while her gentle rival 

171 



MEXICO 

grew more and more popular. In recent times all 
classes in Mexico liave united in honoring the Virgin 
of Guadalupe: the Catholics for religious reasons, the 
Liberals for patriotic ones; the Indians because she 
is their only goddess. 

Another legend of the early Viceroy period deals 
with the founding of the city of Puebla, formerly 
called Puebla of the Angels. The friar Julian Garces, 
first bishop of the Tlascallans, wished to found a re- 
ligious town where travelers on their way between the 
coast and the City of Mexico might rest. One night 
in a dream he saw a beautiful plain, watered by two 
rivers and many springs, with two great volcanoes on 
the west. As he looked, two angels with lines and 
rods measured boundaries on the ground, and marked 
places for streets and squares and public buildings. 
The bishop awoke and afterwards found the very place 
as he had seen it in his dream, and on this spot he 
founded the town of Puebla of the Angels, in the prov- 
ince of Tlascalla, in 1530, with the help of forty Span- 
ish families and many joyful Indians. The angels who 
measured it out must have wept often over the fierce 
battles that have raged in and around it, for on account 
of its position on the highroad between Vera Cruz and 
the City of Mexico Puebla has figured in most of the 
Mexican wars. 

Other cities not founded by miraculous aid, but 
nevertheless very picturesque and interesting, are 

172 



MEXICO UNDEE THE VICEROYS 

Guadalajara, Valladolid, now Morelia, and Guana- 
juato. 

Guadalajara (Gwad-a-la-ha'-ra), now capital of the 
State of Jalisco in the western Sierra Madre, and the 
most beautiful city in Mexico, was founded by the 
first Viceroy, Mendoza, near the site where the cruel 
Nuno de Guzman, President of the first Audencia, 
who burned the King of the Michoacans alive because 
he could not or would not give him the gold he desired, 
had established a town under the pious name of Es- 
piritu Santo (Holy Ghost). It is still a quaint and 
interesting old town, with many old Spanish houses 
whose thick wooden doors and beautifully wrought iron 
gates guard inner patios full of lovely flowers. Its 
climate is like June all the year around, and its high 
altitude makes the air dry and healthful. 

Valladolid was also founded by Mendoza in the an- 
cient and beautiful western kingdom of Michoacan, 
now the province of the same name. This belonged to 
the Tarascan Indians who preserved their kingdom till 
after the Conquest. Valladolid was founded with 
masses and days of festival, sixty Spanish families and 
many Tarascans being assembled. A beautiful ca- 
thedral, superior even to that in the City of Mexico, 
was finished in 1744. The name of this city was 
changed to Morelia during the last century, for a rea- 
son we shall read about later. 

Life in the City of Mexico during the period of the 

173 



MEXICO 

Viceroys was not without its troubles, in spite of a 
certain glamour and splendor. The city soon lost the 
reputation for brilliancy which had distinguished it at 
first, and became merely rich and sleepy. From the 
time of the Aztecs it had been subject to disastrous 
floods in rainy seasons, and early in the seventeenth 
century an engineer, Enrico Martinez, was called upon 
to prevent this. With the help of fifteen thousand 
(Indians he built a tunnel to drain away the waters of 
Lake Zumpango, the highest of the lakes in the Mex- 
ican valley. But this did not entirely stop the floods, 
and an engineer from Holland, Adrian Boot, was 
called into consultation by the Viceroy, and recom- 
mended a system of dikes, which was built. This 
vexed the jealous Martinez, and during a very rainy 
season he closed up his tunnel, with the result that the 
city was covered with three feet of water. Thousands 
of Indians died, the Europeans left, people went about 
in canoes, as in Aztec times. Martinez was promptly 
put in prison. This did not help matters at all, how- 
ever! He was released by the authorities, reopened 
his tunnel and rebuilt the dikes, and the waters sub- 
sided. But still the city was not free from floods, and 
later on Martinez' tunnel was replaced by an open 
canal, still to be seen, which caused a considerable fall 
in Lake Texcuco, so that the former island on which 
the city was built is now a part of the surrounding 

174 



MEXICO UNDEK THE VICEEOYS 

plain. The final drainage of the valley was completed 
in 1898, by a firm of English engineers. 

If life in the capital was insecure, that in the coast 
cities was still more dangerous. This was the age when 
pirates sailed the Spanish Main, "with a yo-heave-ho, 
and a bottle of rum !" Sir Francis Drake was a name 
to inspire terror among the Spanish sailors and set- 
tlers of the New World during the latter part of the 
sixteenth century. In various raids in these parts this 
gentlemanly person, who ate off fine silver and was 
accompanied by the younger sons of the English no- 
bility, captured many millions of dollars' worth of 
gold, silver and precious stones from the Spanish mines. 
In 1577 he sailed for the Pacific Ocean, sacked sev- 
eral towns on that coast, and hid among the lonely 
caves of California, where he kept a sharp lookout for 
the yearly galleon laden with rich goods from the Phil- 
ippine Islands. (These islands had been colonized 
from Mexico in 1564 and named for Philip II of 
Spain.) In due time he sighted her, sailed out, cap- 
tured, and plundered her of her treasure. Later he 
destroyed St. Augustine in Florida. In 1683, more than 
a century later, Vera Cruz was besieged and sacked 
by pirates commanded by Van Horn, the robbers car- 
rying away property to the amount of seven million 
dollars, while the inhabitants took refuge in the 
churches. Acapulco on the west coast, the center of 
the trade with China, the East Indies and the Philip- 

175 



MEXICO 

pines, was captured by the English pirate Cavendish 
in 1587. 

In 1697, the Jesuit Father Salvatierra with others 
of his order traveled to Lower California, hitherto only 
visited by pearl fishers, and began the work of con- 
verting the wild tribes at the foot of the Western Si- 
erras along the Pacific coast. Their missions later 
passed into the hands of the Franciscans, who began 
to establish missions in Upper California in 1769. 
From this period date the mission churches of San 
Diego, Santa Barbara and others, which are still stand- 
ing. 

In 1692, the foundations of Pensacola in Florida 
were laid by the Spaniards, under the enterprising 
Viceroy Galvez. 

In 1701, the passing of the monarchy of Spain from 
the house of Austria to that of Bourbon caused great 
convulsions in Europe, but affected Mexico very lit- 
tle. So loyal was the country to the reigning sover- 
eign, whoever he was, that the new Bourbon King, 
Philip V, thought at one time of taking refuge there 
from the stormy scenes in Europe. 

Seventeen hundred and fourteen marked the begin- 
ning of the colonization of Texas by the Jesuits. By 
the end of the next year several garrisons were estab- 
lished, and the Indians gave up their hunting life to 
settle around them, as long as the supply of gifts held 
out! 

176 



MEXICO U:^DEK THE VICEKOYS 

After a long period of viceroys, good, bad and in- 
different, tlie energetic Count of Revilla-Gigedo, sec- 
ond viceroy of that name, arrived in Mexico in 1789. 
There are many stories about him. He found the cap- 
ital in a very bad state, the streets filthy, unlighted 
and unpaved, Indian women selling tortillas in the 
Vice-regal Palace itself, and robbers abundant; and at 
once set about improving conditions. When, on walk- 
ing through the city he saw something that needed at- 
tention, he sent instantly for the official responsible, 
adding to his message the magic phrase, "I await you 
here!" which of course made the latter rush to the 
spot. 

It is said that one night this Count discovered a 
street which ended abruptly in a mass of wretched 
hovels. He immediately sent word to a certain offi- 
cer that the street must be opened through to the end 
of the city before mass the next morning ! The officer, 
knowing that it was a question of obey or lose his job, 
collected laborers and torches, and "all night long," 
says the historian, "the shouts of the workmen, the 
noise of pick-ax and crow-bar, the crash of falling 
roofs, and the rumbling of carts, kept the city in a 
fever of excitement." Precisely at sunrise the state 
carriage with the viceroy, his family and suite, left 
the palace and drove to the street in question. A thou- 
sand workmen, in double file, fell back on either side, 
shouting vivas. The street was open to the city wall 

177 



MEXICO 

even as the viceroy had commaiided, and at the end 
of it was the proud official, waiting, hat in hand, to 
receive a word of praise for his promptness. The 
same Street of Revilla-Gigedo is in the City of Mex- 
ico to this day. 

Such actions on the part of a high official must have 
made an impression in the land where manana (to-mor- 
row) was and still is the favored time for attending to 
business. 

There is another interesting story of this Viceroy. 

Among the Creole nobles who made up the Viceroy's 
court was a certain Marques, who possessed two re- 
markably pretty daughters. They were born coquettes 
and gave their father much anxiety. One night the 
Marques was roused from his sleep by a message from 
the Viceroy, who awaited him in the palace. Much 
alarmed at the unusual summons, he dressed himself 
hastily and hurried to the palace, where he found the 
Viceroy in his cabinet, surrounded by several of his 
household. 

"Marques," said the Viceroy, as soon as the noble- 
man entered, "my lieutenant here complains that you 
did not take proper care to secure the doors of your 
mansion last evening. '^ 

The Marques protested that both the great gate and 
the outer door were locked as usual. 

"But have you not a rear gate opening into the next 
street?" asked the Count. "You must know that this 

178 



MEXICO UNDER THE VICEROYS 

watchful lieutenant of mine has saved you to-night 
from robbery." 

"Robbery! Your excellency, is it possible?" 

"Yes, and of the worst kind. The thieves were in 
the act of carrying off your most exquisite treasures 
— which are now restored to you." 

At these words, a door at the side of the cabinet 
flew open, and the astonished Marques saw his two 
daughters, dressed for traveling, and in great con- 
fusion. 

"And these are the robbers," added the Viceroy, 
pointing to a door on the opposite side, which also 
flew open. The Marques turned, and saw two of the 
gayest and handsomest, but also most dissipated youths 
of the court, whom he remembered as occasional vis- 
itors at his house. They were no less confused, and 
also alarmed. 

"You see, Marques," said the Count, "that but for 
the wa,tchfulness of my police, you would have had the 
honor of being father-in-law to two of the greatest 
scamps in my viceroyalty. See what a dilemma your 
carelessness has brought me into, my dear sir! I am 
obliged to wound the feelings of two of the most lovely 
ladies in my court, to save them from the machinations 
of scoundrels unworthy of their charms, and I fear 
they will never forgive me! Earewell, Senor Mar- 
ques; take my advice, and brick up your rear gate. 
As for these young scapegraces, they sail in the next 

179 



MEXICO 

galleon for Manila, wliere they can exercise their fas- 
cinating powers on the native Philippine women!" 

This efficient and all-seeing Viceroy was one of the 
last to wield the royal authority in Mexico. Spain, 
so brilliant and powerful when Mexico was first dis- 
covered, was now growing steadily weaker. Jn 1818 
the conqueror Napoleon desposed the Spanish King, 
Ferdinand VII, and placed Joseph Bonaparte on the 
throne. This caused a thrill of disquiet in Mexico and 
weakened the feeling of loyalty to the mother-country. 
At this time there came over a new Viceroy, Ituri- 
garray, who, though a public-spirited ruler, incurred 
the displeasure of the Audencia, who suspected that he 
meant to seize the government for himself. Supported 
by many Spanish citizens, they took possession of the 
Vice-regal Palace, seized and imprisoned Iturigarray 
and shipped him back to Spain. Thereby they showed 
how easily such things are done, and started a long 
train of political explosions which have continued up 
to the present time. 

The overthrowing of Iturigarray was only a little 
diversion of the ruling Spaniards; but another move- 
ment of greater importance was in the air. This was 
the real Revolution which was to end in separation 
from Spain. It was brought about by the growing 
discontent of the native Mexicans, both upper and 
lower classes, under Spanish rule. The upper classes, 
consisting of Creoles, or people of Spanish blood born 

ISO 



MEXICO UI^DER THE VICEKOYS 

in Mexico, and mestizos, people part Spanish and part 
Indian, resented bitterly the fact that all the impor- 
tant offices in the colony were given only to those who 
had been born in Spain. They also objected to the 
strict rules laid down by the mother country against 
foreign trade and domestic manufactures. All com- 
merce between Mexico and the rest of the world ex- 
cept Spain was forbidden under penalty of death. 
Mexico was not allowed to produce anything that might 
be bought in Spain. Such industries as olive-growing 
and silk-producing, so well adapted to the country, 
were strictly forbidden. Mexico's only reason for ex- 
istence in the eyes of Spain seemed to be to produce 
precious metals: gold, gold, and still more gold. More 
than ten billions of riches had already been taken out 
of the country to give to Spain, and still the grasping 
mother was unsatisfied! Then, too, there was a most 
unjust rule by which soldiers and ecclesiastics in Mex- 
ico could not be tried in the ordinary courts but only 
in their own special tribunals. This had the effect 
of making them irresponsible for their acts to the world 
at large, and led to many instances of oppression. The 
lower classes in Mexico had every reason to feel re- 
bellious, as they were practically serfs in the mines and 
on the haciendas or estates. 

The seeds of liberty were blown into the country 
by every wind from the free Kepublic at the north, and 
carried by every traveler from France. The hour of 

181 



MEXICO 

the Great Revolution was indeed approacliing. But 
since it was a long-drawn-out affair, quite bewildering 
in its many twists and turns, we shall tell of it in the 
simplest possible way, in story instead of history form. 
Let us listen, then, to Pipila's Story of the Revolution. 



CHAPTEK XIV 
THE REVOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE* 

(As Told by Pipila) 

So, Senorita, you would have me tell the young 
Senors and Senoritas of the United States the story 
of how my country won her liberty ? Very well. Only 
you must put down every word just as I say it, for 
I, Pipila, had an ancestor who was in these very events, 
and what is more, was a great hero; and his account 
of these matters and of his own part therein has been 
handed down in our family; so that I can tell you 
exactly what, happened. 

* This account of the Mexican Revolution for Independence is 
historically correct, though the modern Pipila who tells the tale 
is an imaginary character. The Pipila who set fire to the door 
at Guanajuato was a real person, hoMever, his deed being de- 
scribed on page 33 of L. Gutierrez De Lara's and Edgcumb Pin- 
chon'a "The Mexican People." Also in Susan Hale's "Story of 
Mexico." Here he is called Pipiea, and described as a small boy. 
The present author has preferred to follow De Lara's version. 
History being properly the study of humanity at various epochs, 
she makes no apology for using this human incident in the con- 
struction of a chapter which may make the story of the Revolu- 
tion more appealing to young readers, and possibly older ones, 
than a dry recital of facts and battles would be. The reader will 
find a more detailed account of the Revolution of 1810 in any of 
the admirable histories of Mexico mentioned in the List of Refer- 
ences given in the front of the book. 

183 



MEXICO 

In the first place, Senorita, you must know that we 
Mexicans suffered much during the three long cen- 
turies the Spaniards were in power. For the cruel 
Spaniards took away from us our lands — ^the lands 
which our ancestors held in common — and forced us 
to labor like the meanest slaves. !N'o wages did we 
get, we who should have owned the country; nothing 
but the coarsest food, rags, blows and abuse. 

But, you say, we had the Church to help us. She 
was rich — the images of the Blessed Virgin and the 
Saints in the churches even in the poorest villages were 
blazing with gold and jewels — surely she did not look 
on tamely and see us abused. Ah, Senorita, you are 
wrong. In old, old times, when the Spaniards first 
came, I have heard that the priests were kind to my 
ancestors, protected them from the cruelty of the Span- 
iards, gave them excellent instruction and allowed them 
to live in peace and receive some of the fruits of their 
toil. But in later times that was all changed. The 
Church had grown too rich, too powerful. Such riches 
and such power are dangerous for the soul. The 
priests, instead of setting an example to us, were men 
of bad lives. Ah, what goings on there were in the 
monasteries scattered over the land you would hardly 
believe, and indeed it would be a shame to tell you. 
And on the great estates of the Church, the poor peons 
were more badly used than elsewhere. Those were in- 
deed hard times, Senorita. It was still many years 

184 



THE EEVOLUTION FOR mDEPENDE:N^CE 

after the Revolution in your great country, and yet 
my poor forbears were so ignorant that they did not 
think it possible for men to throw off the yoke of the 
oppressor. 

But here and there in Mexico were men of better 
education, who learned of what you call the Amer- 
ican Revolution (there is more than one American 
Revolution, Senorita), and of that other great Revo- 
lution in France which overthrew the aristocrats who 
oppressed the French peons so sorely. And these men 
— they were brave and clever, you may believe — be- 
gan to ask themselves, why should we not do this in 
Mexico? Why should we suffer forever in silence? 
Why not tell the poor people what other people in other 
lands have done, and make great armies of them, and 
lead them to victory ? 

Ah, little did the Spaniards realize what was in the 
air. True, they learned of conspiracies here and there 
— they put the Intellectuals, as the clever men were 
called, in prison now and again — but never did they 
dream that the Indian peasants would have the strength 
and courage to rise against them ! 

Now one of the clever men I spoke of was Miguel 
Hidalgo; and would you believe it, he was a priest of 
the Church! But that when you think of it is not so 
strange, for was not Jesus Christ himself, the founder 
of the Church, a man of ideas, who cared for the com- 
mon people ? And this priest cared more for what 

*185 



MEXICO 

Jesus taught than for what the dignitaries of the 
Church said. Indeed, he had already run afoul of 
these same dignitaries, and been summoned before the 
Holy Inquisition to account for his views; but he an- 
swered them so reasonably that they let him go. For 
this Cure Hidalgo was a man of some education. He 
could understand French, even! and had taught at the 
college of San iJ^icolas, in Valladolid. But now he 
was cure of the little village of Dolores, in the very 
rich state of Guanajuato, which is full of mines of 
silver and gold and other precious metals. 

Father Hidalgo, though he had studied much, was 
a practical man. He desired to help his people, who 
were very poor and oppressed by the mine-owners, and 
so he started factories for them to work in at good 
wages. Weaving and pottery factories — from time im- 
memorial we Mexicans have been able to make very 
pretty cloths and also earthen vessels of all sorts — and 
he also started a blacksmith's shop, and a farm with 
mulberry vines for silkworms. 

But the Spaniards in power would have none of these 
things, for they did not wish to have any industry in 
the country, but all products must be brought from 
Spain, at such high prices that none but the rich could 
buy them. These Spaniards thereupon broke up the 
factories, and destroyed the vines which sheltered the 
silkworms of the good cure. Ah, they did not know 

186 



THE EEVOLUTIOI^ EOR INDEPE:^rDE:N'CE 

what they were planting in the heart of the cure Hi- 
dalgo when they tore up his precious vines ! 

"Very well!" said he to himself. "They will not 
let me help my people hy any peaceful means. They 
will see now what I can do hy force!" 

At this time, Senorita, — it was, in fact, in the year 
1810 — there were other men of ideas in the country. 
Two of these were very fine young men, Lieutenant 
Aldama and Lieutenant Allende, of the King's army. 
Lieutenant Allende especially was well-born, of a Span- 
ish father and Mexican mother, rich and handsome — 
handsome as an angel — yet in spite of being so favored 
by fortune, he desired to help his unfortunate brothers 
in Mexico. Hidalgo knew these young men and oth- 
ers like them. Somehow — such things happen easily 
in my country, Senorita — word flew from one to the 
other that they must join together and lead the natives 
in an uprising against the government. But not at 
once; there were arms to be collected and much to be 
prepared; they must not be in too much of a hurry. 

But, behold, weeks before the uprising was to occur, 
came Aldama and Allende secretly in the dark mid- 
night to the house of the good Cure Hidalgo. 

"Our plans are discovered by the government/' they 
told him. "We shall be arrested shortly." 

The Cure Hidalgo was a man of courage, for all that 
up to now he had been a peaceful priest. 

"Then we must act at once !" cried he. 

187 



MEXICO 

Instantly lie sent the alarm to a few of his friends 
in the village and before the half hour was over ten 
or more armed men hastened to him. With these and 
the young lieutenants the Cure Hidalgo marched to 
the town jail, where were many poor wretches unjustly 
confined for having opinions which did not please the 
government, or for no reason at all. These Hidalgo 
and his friends at once set free. It was the first act 
of liberation of the Revolution. 

The Cure then hastened to his church, for by this 
time it was three o'clock, the hour for the peasants' 
mass, before they went to their long day's labor in the 
mines and fields. But there was no mass that day. 

^^My children," cried Hidalgo from the pulpit, "this 
day has come to us a new dispensation. Are you ready 
to receive it ? Will you be free ? Will you make the 
effort to recover from the hated Spaniards the lands 
stolen from your fathers three hundred years ago?" 

"Yes! Yes!" the peons answered. "Down with the 
Spaniards !" 

And who can blame them? For though the Span- 
iards may have been good in some points, Senorita, 
they were not good to the Mexicans. They were far, 
far worse than those whom you call Tories — you see I 
am educated, I have read your histories — than those 
Tories were to your ancestors; and yet you are proud, 
are you not, of having driven the Tories from your 
land? 

188 



THE KEVOLUTIOI^ FOE INDEPENDE:tTCE 

But the priest, Hidalgo, gave his people a new cry. 
"Up With True Eeligion, and Down With False Gov- 
ernment !" 

"El Grito de Dolores," is called the movement that 
started that night, "The Cry of Dolores;" it has gone 
echoing down into history. Would you not he proud 
of your ancestors that had started that cry, Senorita? 

For truly, one of my ancestors was in the thick of 
these events. That one was the old peon, Pipila, after 
whom I am named. He was one of Hidalgo's pa- 
rishioners, and oh, how he loved the good cure. He has 
often described him to my gi-andfather, who has told 
it to me; a very vigorous, strongly built man, was this 
beloved priest, one who loved a joke, with a good red 
face and well-shaped head, but already advanced in 
years when these events began. And indeed, so was 
my ancestor, Pipila. But he too was still strong, as 
you shall see. 

Well, when Pipila heard Father Hidalgo speak at 
the church that morning, he was set all on fire, so to 
speak, and determined to join the Revolution at any 
cost, though he had no gun and no weapon at all but 
his own two arms and a stout club. And in that he 
was like many others of the peons, for the Spaniards 
had not encouraged their having weapons, you may 
be sure. 

Meanwhile, you understand, more and more natives 
were hastening into the little village of Dolores. For 

189 



MEXICO 

it was only a few hours before tlie news of what had 
happened had spread far and wide among the peons. 
Things happen that way in Mexico. Even now, at 
the time of the present disturbances, in places where 
there is not the telephone and telegraph, the native 
Mexicans know of the movements of distant armies long 
before the white people. How is that? Is it some 
magic? Do not ask me. We Mexicans have secrets 
handed down from the native men who were in 
Anahuac long before the white people came. We were 
of very intelligent races, Senorita, not uneducated sav- 
ages, you understand, like your red men, but races from 
the East, possibly, where there is much wisdom. Who 
knows ? 

At any rate, the peasants of the country heard, long 
before the Spaniards, of the Grito which the good 
Hidalgo had given, and they came hurrying to aid him. 
They were strange people for an army, poor farm 
laborers and mountain Indians; and as for arms, most 
of them, like my ancestor, had none at all; but some 
had arms they had fashioned for themselves, by stealth, 
perhaps at the cure's blacksmith shop. The good cure 
at first did not want to take these poor defenseless crea- 
tures on his march, but they insisted. They were men, 
Senorita, they would not stay behind while Hidalgo 
was fighting their cause. 

So the very day after the midnight alarm, Hidalgo 
and the young officers and their band — there were six 

190 



THE eevolutio:n" foe ie'depe:n^dei^ce 

hundred then — set forth on their march. And at every 
step of the way other natives joined them, so that in a 
few hours there were a thousand, then two thousand, 
and finally great numbers. Presently they came to a 
town — you would not know the name, Senorita, if I 
told it to you — and they entered and bade the inhabi- 
tants surrender. So taken by surprise were the Span- 
iards in the town that hardly one of them resisted. As 
for the other people, they were glad enough to have 
those of their blood get the upper hand, I can tell you. 
In passing a certain church, the cure took therefrom a 
banner containing a picture of the Virgin of Guada- 
lupe, and fixing it upon his lance, adopted it as the flag 
of the army. ''Viva la religion! Viva nuestra Madre 
Santisima de Guadalupe! Viva la America y muera 
el mal gobiemo!" (''Long live religion ! Long live our 
most Holy Mother of Guadalupe ! Long live America, 
and death to bad government") And at this towQ they 
got arms, which came in very usefully, you may be 
sure. And this army of Hidalgo's went on and on, 
from one tov^n to another in this region, and all of them 
fell quite peacefully into their hands, so greatly were 
the Spaniards surprised at the daring of these op- 
pressed peasants. 

But by and by the rebels — as the Spaniards called 
them, just as the British did your ancestors, Senorita — 
came to the strong, rich, mining city of Guanajuato, 
the "Silver City," which is built in a ravine, the houses 

191 



MEXICO 

all crowded on top of one another as if on a stairway. 
Guarding all is the very strong fortress called the 
Castillo de Granaditas, where were six hundred Span- 
ish soldiers all armed to the teeth, and well-trained, 
quite unlike Hidalgo's poor peasants, besides many 
other Spanish. At the head of them all was the Bishop, 
who directed operations ; and aiding him were the Span- 
ish mine-owners, very strong men, well-used to author- 
ity, who were prepared to battle to the utmost to defend 
the riches which they had wrung from the bowels of 
the earth through the forced toil of poor Indians. 

Hidalgo and his peasants, of whom my ancestor 
Pipila was one, hesitated not at all, but made all prep- 
arations to attack this fortress. But truly it was a 
hard job, as you say in your country, Senorita, for the 
Spaniards had many cannon to mow down the enemy, 
besides all their guns, and we had barely a thousand 
muskets among us, and the shot from these spattered 
harmlessly against the stone walls of this strong 
fortress. But nevertheless the Mexicans began the 
attack. 

Oh, how furiously they surged against those walls, 
and how incessantly they threw their stones at the 
castle. And how valiantly those with guns used them ! 
And when the cannon balls plunged through the ranks, 
killing many, how others pressed forward to take their 
places. It was, quite like the old days, Senorita, when 
the Aztecs besieged Cortes and his men in the palace 

102 



THE REV0LUTI0:N' for INDEPENDEISrCE 

of Axayacatl. We natives are peaceable by nature and 
slow to revolt, but when we do rise, nothing stops us. 

In the midst of all this fury of attack, what should 
happen but that a priest bearing a crucifix appeared 
upon the parapet of the Castillo and commanded us to 
withdraw ! So long had the Church ruled over us for 
good or ill that he thought he had only to say the word 
and we would obey! But alas, that priest was speak- 
ing on the wrong side. We would have nothing more 
to do with the priests of the Spaniards. My people 
stoned him and his crucifix without remorse. 

But still the great fortress appeared impregnable, 
and the Mexicans were losing their lives by the thou- 
sand in vain. What was there to do? Ah, Senorita, 
this is where my brave ancestor, Pipila, came to the 
front. He had a head, that man, though he was only 
an uneducated Indian. He looked at the fortress and 
he saw one spot in it less strong than the rest ; the great 
door, which was of wood, though with strong iron bars 
and bolts. If the Mexicans could but set fire to that 
gate, thought Pipila, it would be easy then to force their 
ivay in. But how to do it? For the gate was well 
guarded, and whoever approached it would get a bap- 
tism of bullets that would usher him into the life to 
come without delay. 

Pipila in despair cast his eyes to the ground. There 
what should he see but a large, flat paving-stone some- 

193 



MEXICO 

what loosened from its mortar! Quick as thouglit lie 
pried it up with his stick. 

^NTow the turtle is an animal with which we are well 
acquainted in Mexico, and I for my part believe that 



Pipila on seeing this stone thought at once of the horny- 
back of the turtle which the good God has given the 
beast to protect him from injury. For Pipila did a 
strange thing. He placed himself on his hands and 
knees like any four-footed animal, and requested those 
near him to put the large, flat stone on his back. 

"Bind it on me with ropes,'' said he. "And bring 
me fire and a torch of fat pine!" 

They did as he commanded, for they saw well that 
Pipila had some good reason. Then did this, my an- 
cestor, who was already an old man, but of great 
strength, begin crawling on his hands and knees toward 
the great door of the fortress. Ah, how the bullets 
whizzed round him, yes, and even spattered like hail 
upon his back ! But what did that matter, since it was 
of solid stone ? Yes, that old Pipila was a good turtle 
that day! Not a bit did he mind what went on about 
him, but crawled with all his four feet as fast as he 
could go towards that door with the torch in his hand. 
When he reached it you can imagine what happened. 
The wood was thick, but it was old and dry. That 
torch which Pipila carried undid all the work of the 
Spanish soldiers. It burnt a hole in their fortress that 
let the Revolutionaries in ! 

194 



THE EEVOLUTIO^ FOE i:N^DEPENDE:^rCE 

So the strong Castillo de Granaditas fell into the 
hands of the Mexicans, Senorita, with all its soldiers and 
priests and mine-owners, with all their weapons, and 
also the great riches of the Spaniards. And since 
these had been wrung from us by force in the first place, 
we took them all back again; and greatly they helped 
us in our Revolution. The people of the town were 
with us in this struggle, and rose in our favor, killing 
many Spaniards. 

As for Pipila, he survived the fight, and accompanied 
Hidalgo's army further on its march. I never heard 
that he was promoted for his deed, but doubtless that 
would not have been fitting, for he was only a poor, 
ignorant peon, and well advanced in years. But he 
received great glory among his comrades, and is even 
mentioned in the histories to this day. God grant that 
I, his namesake, may accomplish something noteworthy 
for the cause of freedom in these troubled times, 
Senorita ! 

You ask what further became of the army of our 
Revolution, and of its leader, Hidalgo. Ah, Senorita, 
all was not prosperity, and yet in the end, yes, in the 
end, they triumphed; even though by that time many, 
including our brave priest, were in Paradise with the 
angels. Shall I tell you the rest of the story of the 
Revolution, Senorita? Well, then, have patience, for 
there were many confusing events which happened, as 
is the way with our history. J think you of the North 

195 



MEXICO 

know little of our Mexican deeds and heroes. And is 
it not strange, when we fought for independence, just 
as you did? 

Hidalgo and his army next marched on the great city 
of Valladolid, now Morelia, and captured that with 
scarcely a struggle. And then they made preparations 
to march upon Mexico City. But meanwhile the Vice- 
roy, Venetas, was aroused, and his army was even then 
marching to conquer the insurgents. And also the 
great dignitaries of the Church in the City of Mexico 
were hurling sermons and excommunications right and 
left at our good priest Hidalgo and all his comrades. 
They would bar them from all intercourse with Chris- 
tians in this world and from Heaven in the world to 
come. And why should they wish to do that, when our 
cry was not against the Church, but against bad govern- 
ment? You may well ask. The Church in Mexico, 
Senorita, has too often been on the side of bad govern- 
ment, because that has upheld it in all its unjust power 
and privileges. But these insurgents cared not at all 
for the excommunications. Perhaps they thought any- 
thing was better than the life the Church already had 
made them suffer. And was not the Blessed Virgin 
of Guadalupe on their side? They marched on. 

On the Hill of Las Cruces, not far from the City 
of Mexico, the two armies met; that of Hidalgo, and 
that of the Viceroy; and a terrible battle followed. 
The enemy used their artillery well, and more than ten 

196 



THE REVOLUTION FOR INDEPENDEITCE 

thousand Revolutionists lost their lives on that day. 
But such were our numbers and our courage that un- 
armed as many of us were, we completely destroyed the 
Viceroy's army. Not one was left alive on the field. 
As for the general himself, he escaped only because his 
horse was swift ! 

Having gained this great victory, the peons thought 
that of course Father Hidalgo would march at once 
upon the City of Mexico. But he did not do so. Why 
not? Some say that his compassionate heart feared 
the horrors that might follow if the Revolutionaries 
were let loose in the streets of the capital; others say 
that his messages to the people of the capital met with 
no response and he thought them hostile. At any rate, 
he turned about and led his army north. My ancestor 
Pipila was still with him. He was sorry indeed to 
turn his back upon the capital. He felt in his bones 
that it would come to no good. 

And indeed in a short time Hidalgo with his army 
was attacked in great force by the Spanish general 
Calleja at Aculco, and badly defeated. The great army 
all melted away. Part of it went with Allende to 
Guanajuato, but Calleja pursued them there, and pres- 
ently they had to leave Guanajuato and retreat to 
Zacatecas. Calleja then entered the mining city in 
triumph — and oh, what a terrible revenge he and his 
troops took upon the inhabitants of the city for having 

197 



MEXICO 

aided tlie Revolutionists ! You would not believe what 
cruelties thej committed. 

But meanwhile my ancestor Pipila was with Hidalgo 
in the north in Guadalajara. Though at first after the 
great defeat only a handful of men was left with the 
Cure, he was not discouraged, but set about gaining 
new recruits. These joined him in some numbers, and 
what is more, he established a government in Guadala- 
jara, and received the title of Generalissimo of the 
Army of the Revolution, even as did your George 
Washington. And he sent a commissioner to the 
United States to ask for aid, but the man was captured 
by the Spaniards before he reached your border. 

JSTow Calleja made plans to march with his terrible 
army to attack Hidalgo, and Aldama and AUende^ 
knowing of it, hastened thither with their forces. And 
a great battle was fought at the Bridge of Calderon, 
near Guadalajara, when Hidalgo and his army, and the 
reinforcements of AUende and Aldama, tried to prevent 
the army of Calleja from coming further. It was a 
long and furious battle, and three times it looked as 
if the Revolutionaries would win, but they were at last 
defeated. My ancestor Pipila escaped as if by a mir- 
acle, and hid in the house of a friend in Guadalajara. 
And Hidalgo and AUende also escaped towards the 
north, and it was their hope that they could reach your 
country and recruit another army. But, alas, they 

198 



THE REVOLUTION^ EOE INDEPENDENCE 

were captured by a force of Spanish in the desert, and 
taken to Chihuahua for trial. 

At the trial Hidalgo made a speech, telling the Span- 
iards what it was the patriots hoped to do for their 
country. Ah, Senorita, it makes the Mexican heart 
glow with pride to read that speech, just as yours does 
when you read what Lincoln says at Gettysburg. For 
Hidalgo, like your Lincoln, was a great, simple man, 
one who could joke, yes, but with a heart as deep as the 
ocean; and what both desired above all was the welfare 
of their people. And though Hidalgo had never heard 
of government "of the people, by the people, and for 
the people," yet he said in other words that very same 
thing; namely, that he was fighting for a Congress in 
which every individual of his country should be repre- 
sented; and that this Congi-ess should pass laws to es- 
tablish the brotherhood of man, the progress of fine arts, 
industry and commerce; and, above all — mark these 
good words — that it should 'Wecognize in every one with- 
out exception the right to enjoy the bounteous produc- 
tion of our rich lands, and the right to he happy, thus 
obeying God's fatherly commands to this country/' Ah, 
yes, that is what Hidalgo wished for his people — that 
they should enjoy the fruits of their toil, which they 
never had done since the Spaniards came, and that they 
should be happy. And to win them this, he gave every- 
thing, even his life. 

For of course the Spaniards decreed that Hidalgo 

199 



MEXICO 

should die. And of what happened on the day of his 
execution my ancestor, Pipila, who was still in hiding, 
heard afterwards from a native who was present in 
the service of the Spaniards, though his heart was on 
the other side. The Priest Hidalgo, being wakened 
early in the morning, walked to his execution as calmly 
as to early mass. On the way he stopped and sent a 
messenger back after something he had left under his 
pillow — some sweetmeats, all the valuables he had — 
and when they were brought he distributed them among 
the soldiers of the firing squad, as if they had been his 
children. And this done, he took his seat in the ap- 
pointed chair, and raised his hand to his heart, to show 
them where to fire. And then the shots rang out, and 
all was over. The good Cure Hidalgo had gone to his 
reward. 

Your George Washington was more fortunate, 
Senorita. But he was not more beloved by his people 
than is our hero. There is not a Mexican to-day, no 
matter how ignorant, who does not hold in .reverence 
the name of Miguel Hidalgo. And the picture of this 
man hangs on the walls of the schoolrooms in the re- 
motest Indian districts. The anniversary of the Grito 
de Dolores is one of the greatest of our national holi- 
days. 

Hidalgo's lieutenants, Aldama, Allende, and Jiminez, 
were no less unfortunate, all being executed. Indeed, 
Pipila, when he returned to Guanajuato, some time 

200 



THE REVOLUTION FOR INDEPENDENCE 

after, saw the heads of all the four heroes placed on 
spikes on the four corners of the Castillo de Granaditas 
which they had conquered, but which had reverted to 
the Spaniards. But they did not stay there forever, 
Senorita. When the Revolution was ended the heads 
of these heroes were taken down and buried with all 
reverence in the Cathedral of the City of Mexico. And 
to-day in Guanajuato in the square in front of the 
Castillo de Granaditas, where the spike is still shov^n 
on which his head formerly hung, stands a bronze 
statue of Hidalgo the Liberator. 

But now to tell you of the further happenings in the 
Revolution. When one man dies in a good cause, 
Senorita, always, always, there is found another to take 
his place. So now, at the death of Generalissimo 
Hidalgo, though the Revolutionists for the most part 
were scattered, still another priest, by the name of 
Juan Maria Morelos, upheld the cause in the South, 
being especially known for his defense of the village 
of Cuautla, where for sixty-two days he held the well- 
trained army of Calleja at bay, and then retreated with 
great skill, losing no men. Morelos was a fine man, 
the son of very poor parents, and had been dedicated 
by them at an early age to the career of mule-driver. 
He pursued this calling for some time, learning, one 
may say, patience and determination from his mules, 
and then, at the advanced age of thirty, entered the 
Academy of San Nicolas in Valladolid (now Morelia) 

201 



MEXICO 

to study for the priesthood. And who should be his 
professor there but Miguel Hidalgo ? Ah, Senorita, it 
was not alone priestcraft that they learned there at 
the Academy of San ^N^icolas, but much else of impor- 
tance. And so when the Cry of Dolores was sounded 
in 1810, Father Morelos, then in charge of a parish, 
was one of the first to come to the aid of Father 
Hidalgo. 

So he kept up the fight after Hidalgo had passed on, 
and defeated the royalists in many battles during the 
years 1812 and 1813. And during this time he called 
together the first ISTational Mexican Congress at a city 
called Chilpantzingo, not far from the Pacific coast. 
And they framed a constitution, which provided that 
every male citizen of Mexico over eighteen years of 
age should vote, and set forth other just and liberal 
measures. Morelos, who received from this Congress 
the title of Generalissimo of the army, planned to take 
the Congress to Yalladolid, his native city, and estab- 
lish a government there; but he and his force were 
defeated just outside Yalladolid by the combined forces 
of two Royalist commanders, one of whom was Augustin 
de Iturbide, a most efficient general, who pursued the 
Insurgents like a tiger hunting his prey. Of him you 
shall hear more later. Morelos escaped from him with 
only a few soldiers, and for months eluded the Royal- 
ists, but was finally captured as he and a small detach- 
ment were escorting his beloved Congress, of which he 

202 



THE KEV0LUTI0:N^ FOK JNDEPENDEl^CE 

was so proud, to Tehuacan in the extreme south. And 
that, you may imagine, was the end of the career of 
the hrave Morelos, for he was taken to the City of 
Mexico and tried by the Holy Inquisition. The sen- 
tence pronounced upon him was death, and he was 
executed by the Spaniards in December, 1815. God 
rest his soul. He too had given his all for Liberty. 
But his ever-glorious name has been given to the city 
once called Valladolid, and also to the state containing 
the village of Cuautla, where he held out for so long 
against the Spaniards. 

And now it looked surely as if the Eevolution must 
be given up, for the Royalists were successful nearly 
everywhere. To add to this, a new Viceroy had come 
over, Juan de Apodoca, a man whose mouth dripped 
with promises and honeyed words, by this means win- 
ning many of our people over to his side. But a few 
stubborn spirits still held out, and in the distant moun- 
tains nursed the flickering flame of rebellion. The 
most renowned of these and the most hated by the 
Spaniards were Guadalupe Victoria and Vicente 
Guerrero. Guerrero, like Morelos, had been a mule- 
driver, and had joined the Revolution in its early days. 
We Mexicans tell of him that he was a thousand times 
defeated, a thousand times conqueror, and that his body 
was full of wounds. Yet always he fought on, win- 
ning at last in the years 1818 and 1819 several vic- 
tories over the Spaniards, and making it possible for 

203 



MEXICO 

a Eevolutionary Congress again to hold meetings. Our 
people became encouraged and many fresh converts 
joined the ranks. 

By now, Senorita, my great-grand-dad Pipila was 
well over his troubles, being dead, so I have no longer 
his account to give you; but what I tell you of the 
later events of the Revolution is all true, and you will 
find it so in the books. 

You heard me speak of the Royalist General, Augus- 
tin de Iturbide, the Terrible. !N"ow he was a native 
Mexican on his mother's side, and should have had 
sympathy with his people; but he was rich, and by 
nature aristocratic, so he cared not what became of the 
poor. And all this while he fought on the Royalist 
side. But presently things happened to make him 
change his mind — he and many other men and priests, 
who formerly had opposed the Revolution with all their 
might. But what these things were, our people at 
the time had no idea. 

You see, the fighters off in the mountains little knew 
of the changes occurring in Spain. But it seems that 
a Liberal party not unlike our Revolutionaries had 
come into power there, and had forced the King, Fer- 
dinand VII, to do just as they commanded, and make 
many changes in his government. He had to call a 
new Liberal Congress, choose Liberal ministers, abolish 
the Inquisition^ free the press, and, in fact, not govern 
as he wished, but as his people wished. 

204 



THE kevolutio:n' foe independence 

Now this state of affairs alarmed the Royalists in 
Mexico very sorely. For they saw that when the new 
Liberal Viceroy, Juan O'Donoju (of Irish descent, 
Senorita, as one may tell by his name) should come 
over, all would not be so fine for them as it had been. 
They might lose some of their ill-gotten gains and 
privileges, and the people might gain some of the things 
for which they had been fighting. So these Royalists 
resolved that the time had come at last to join the 
Revolutionists in freeing the country from Spain; but 
not, like the Revolutionists, because they desired more 
freedom in Mexico, but because they desired less.^ 

General Iturbide, who was in sympathy with these 
plans, got himself the command in the South, where 
Guerrero was fighting, and after several unsuccessful 

*The historians L. Gutierrez De Lara and Edgcumb Pinchon 
in "The Mexican People" are very explicit in giving the rea- 
sons why the Royalists desired independence from Spain as 
stated above. Other historians are more reticent, but I cannot 
find anything to contradict the opinion of the authors just quoted. 
Cf. the account of the reliable historian, Arthur Howard Noll, in 
"A Short History of Mexico." "When the liberal constitution was 
that year proclaimed in Spain it was evident to Iturbide that a 
crisis was pending in INIexico, and he determined to gain for him- 
self a higher position in the new order of things than the Span- 
ish government could offer, even if it succeeded in maintaining 
itself. He attached himself to the ecclesiastics and more politic 
of the Spaniards, Creoles, and Mexican leaders, and after many 
conferences a program of action was duly adopted, though kept 
secret for a time. Independence and separation from Spain 
were to be secured, but by themselves, not by the already exist- 
ing party of revolutionists, and by the terms of the compact a 
Mexican representative monarchy was to be erected, ruled by a 
King of Spanish royal blood. It was a scheme calculated to 
conciliate all the various factions in the country — ^to attract even 
the stanchest Royalists." 

205 



MEXICO 

battles with this brave Insurgent chief, invited him 
to a conference. Guerrero attended. What was his 
surprise to find that Iturbide wished to join forces 
with him against the government! After some hesita- 
tion, he accepted, and handed over his command to 
Iturbide. 

So the Revolutionary Army became very large and 
irresistible, and when the new Viceroy, Juan O'Donoju, 
arrived, he found the movement for independence in 
control of the whole country. So he and Iturbide met 
peaceably at Cordoba, and proclaimed Mexico inde- 
pendent from Spain. And soon after, the combined 
army of former Koyalists and the Revolutionaries 
marched, amid great rejoicings, into the Capital. 
They called themselves the Army of the Three Guaran- 
tees, standing for Religion, Union, and Independence. 
Our flag to-day in its three colors symbolizes these guar- 
antees : white for religion,^ red for independence, green 
for union. 

So, every one was happy, except possibly the peons, 
who had given so freely of their lives from the first 
in the cause of liberty, and who were now for a long 
time no better off than before. For the Army and the 
Church and the rich land-owners were still in power, 
and the peon had to toil for them without reward. 
Perhaps it was as well that my great-grandfather 

^ The religious guarantee established the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion without toleration of any other. 

206 



THE KEVOLUTIOI^ FOE INDEPENDENCE 

Pipila had gone to his long rest, for there would have 
heen no rest for him here helow. But all the same, his 
was a good deed, and it was the flaming torch of Liberty 
that he carried that set fire to the Spanish door; and 
that torch kindled a fire in Mexico that has never jet 
gone out. 



CHAPTER XV 

ITURBIDE AND SANTA ANNA 

On July 21, 1822, there occurred in the great 
Cathedral of the City of Mexico a solemn and imposing 
ceremony. This was the ajiointing and crowning of 
Iturbide and his wife as Emperor and Empress of 
Mexico. A strange result of the struggle of the demo- 
crats for freedom ! 

jit was the Church and aristocracy, who had joined 
with the real Revolutionists to free the country from 
Spain, who had brought this about. The army, always 
under their influence, had first proclaimed Iturbide 
Emperor, and the movement had been referred by the 
general himself to Congress, which, with soldiers sur- 
rounding its hall, at once voted to the same effect. 

But uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Be- 
fore a month had passed there was rebellion on all 
sides. The patriots of tl^e Revolution had not fought, 
bled and died in order that the country should be ruled 
by an autocrat. Bravo, Guerrero, Victoria, all the old 
war-horses of the former struggle, took up the fight 
again. They had a new ally, a handsome young gen- 

208 



ITiTKBIDE AND SA]^TA AN^JSTA 

eral, of quet and melanclioly appearance but great 
energy — Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Santa Anna 
had first distinguished himself in Mexican warfare 
during the previous year by helping to expel the Royal- 
ists from Vera Cruz. 

Iturbide meanwhile hastened his own downfall by 
arbitrarily dissolving Congress, raising forced loans, 
and issuing edicts in a truly despotic manner. 

Suddenly, on the sixth of December, Santa Anna in 
Vera Cruz proclaimed the plan of Casa Mata, which 
made Mexico a Republic. It was approved by the 
army, and Iturbide suddenly found himself an Em- 
peror without an Empire. Unwillingly he abdicated 
the throne he had held so short a time, and stole out of 
the capital, as so many defeated Mexican leaders have 
done before and since. Congress met at once and ban- 
ished him from the country. In consideration of his 
great services during the Revolution, however, it voted 
him an annual income of $25,000 for life, provided 
that he stayed in Italy. 

The ex-Emperor went to Italy, but he could not stay 
there! Mexico possesses a strange fascination, which 
lures her exiles back to her, even at the risk of their 
lives. Iturbide changed his residence to London, from 
which place, hearing of a threatened attempt by the 
Holy Alliance to restore Spanish power in Mexico, he 
wrote to Congress offering his services to prevent such 
action. Congress was very uneasy at receiving this 

209 



MEXICO 

letter. Iturbide's popularity with the aimy was not 
forgotten, and it was feared that his return would bring 
about another revolution. Accordingly an act was 
passed ordering his execution as a traitor if he ever 
again set foot on Mexican soil. 

Meanwhile the rash general had set forth from 
Southampton, England, with his family in a little sail- 
ing vessel. On the fourteenth of July, 1824, his ship 
appeared outside the port of Soto la Marina, f turbide 
landed. He was recognized at once by the general of 
the troops of that part of the country, who arrested him, 
telling him that he had only a few hours to live. Itur- 
bide was astounded. It was the first he had heard of 
the decree. In vain he begged for mercy. The author- 
ities were pitiless. Eive days after landing, the former 
Emperor was shot in front of the church at Padilla, 
declaring with his last breath : 

"I die because I came to help you. I die gladly, be- 
cause I die among you. I die with honor, not as a 
traitor !" 

Some Mexicans consider Iturbide a hero. This is 
open to doubt. He does not stand with the best of 
Mexico's prominent men; but neither is he among the 
worst. He allowed his own longing for power and 
glory to interfere with the slow and faltering, but irre- 
sistible, movement of the country towards democracy, 
and it was for that reason that he was sacrificed. 
Mexican history is full of such events, which seem cruel 

210 



ITUKBIDE AXD SAI^TA AISTITA 

and violent, but are perhaps inevitable, considering the 
hot-blooded character of the people and the long-drawn- 
out conflict between their desire for liberty and the 
strong forces continually at work to thwart it. 

Though Iturbide's emperorship cost him his life, his 
services to his country during the "Revolution have won 
him grateful remembrance. The inscription placed on 
the house where he was born, in Morelia, contains 
enough of glory for any man. It reads simply : 

Ituebide, Libertadok de Mexico 

The young general Santa Anna is the next figure to 
take the center of the stage in the Mexican drama — 
which now becomes as complicated of plot as a moving- 
picture weekly serial! The simile is especially appro- 
priate, for Santa Anna resembles nothing so much as 
one of the deep, dark villains of these productions, who 
are foiled one week only to pop up serenely with fresh 
deeds of wickedness the next. 

Don Felix Fernandez Victoria, the Eevolutionary 
general, called by the people Guadalupe Victoria, be- 
cause he was supposed to be especially favored by Our 
Lady of Guadalupe, was elected President of the new 
Mexican Eepublic in 1824. Wonderful to relate, -his 
first two years in office passed without any disturbance. 
During Victoria's time Congi'ess decreed the expulsion 
of the Spaniards from Mexico. This was not strange, 
considering how cruel and arrogant the Spaniards had 

211 



MEXICO 

been there, but it bad the bad effect of driving much 
wealth and intelligence out of the country. This Con- 
gress also adopted the Constitution of 1824, a progress 
sive document modeled somewhat after that of the 
United States. Unfortunately, it needed more than 
a Constitution to ensure progress in Mexico. The 
trouble with the country was and is, almost up to the 
present time, the absence of an intelligent middle class 
such as forms the greater part of the population of the 
United States and other prosperous countries. A pub- 
lic school system such as ours has never prevailed in 
Mexico. The peons who form the great mass of the 
population are almost entirely uneducated; they do 
not know how to protect themselves against the selfish 
military chieftains who wrestle for supremacy. 

Another important action of Victoria's Congress was 
the throwing open of Texas to colonization from the 
United States. 

Guadalupe Victoria managed to finish his term of 
office, though not without putting down two revolutions. 
In the presidential election of 1828, the existence of 
two great political parties was very evident. These 
were the Liberals and the Conservatives, the latter in- 
cluding the Church party. Pedraza, the Conservative 
candidate, was elected by two votes over Guerrero the 
Liberal. Upon this Santa Anna, who was then Liberal, 
headed an armed uprising, or, as the Mexican expres- 
sion goes, pronounced against the government. Owing 

212 



ITUEBIDE AND SAISTTA ANNA 

to the disturbance, Pedraza finally left the Republic. 
Congress then declared in favor of Guerrero. 

Just at this time Spain, somewhat late in the day, 
sent an expedition to recover her lost colony. Santa 
Anna, without waiting for any orders, fitted out a 
force in Vera Cruz and advanced against the invaders. 
He came, he saw, he conquered! The Spanish com- 
mander capitulated after two days and returned to 
Cuba with the remains of his army. Spain's power in 
Mexico was annihilated forever. Needless to say, 
General Santa Anna was showered with the thanks of 
his grateful people. He was made Minister of War 
and Commander in Chief of the army under President 
Guerrero. 

No sooner did Santa Anna find himself in this com- 
manding position than he used his power to overthrow 
Guerrero's government and put the Vice-President, 
Bustamente, in his place. Guerrero, having only a few 
troops faithful to him, withdrew to the mountains of 
the south, where he had held his own for so long dur- 
ing the Revolution. The government, that is, Busta- 
mente and Santa Anna, finding that they could not 
dislodge him from there by fair means, paid a spy 
$27,000 to decoy him on board a sailing vessel at 
Acapulco, on which he was taken to another port, given 
a military trial, condemned to death, and shot. This 
murder of the brave old General, which occurred on 

- 213 



MEXICO 

February 15, 1831, is one of the blackest blots on 
Santa Anna's far from spotless record. 

Santa Anna did not long remain loyal to Bustaniente, 
but pronounced again in favor of Pedraza, who was 
legally still President. However, early in 1833 Santa 
Anna condescended to become President himself, and 
was soon made Dictator by the devoted army. He pres- 
ently had an opportunity to show his military skill in 
an expedition against the Texans. 

The chapter of Texas is one of the saddest in Mex- 
ico's history, because it is so full of "might-have-beens." 
If Mexico had only possessed a firm government, in- 
stead of one as shifting as the sand, the Texan war 
would, in all human probability, never have happened, 
and Mexico would have been the richer by more than 
half a million square miles of valuable territory. The 
story of Texas is not altogether pleasant reading either 
to the nation who, secure in her strength and her strict 
obedience to the letter of the law, wrested by force of 
arms from a disorganized and weaker country so large 
a portion of her territory. The United States seemed 
in this affair altogether too like a big boy who made 
a little one's peevishness and bad behavior an excuse 
for depriving him of some coveted possession. But in 
1848 "the rights of small nations" was not yet a popu- 
lar phrase. When we contrast the present flourishing 
condition of California, ^N^ew Mexico, Arizona and 

214 



ITTJtRBIDE AND SANTA AI^I^A 

Texas with the distracting state of things just across 
the border, we cannot help feeling that our action, sel- 
fish as it may have been, has turned out for the best. 
But that doesn't make the Mexicans love us any the 
better I 



CHAPTEE XYl 

THE REVOLT OF TEXAS 

Mexico, after the founding of the Republic in 1824, 
had thrown wide open to foreigners the northern part 
of her domain, the far-flung stretches of grassy prairies 
and sandy deserts included in the Mexican State of 
Texas. Erom one point of view she did well, for all 
former attempts on her part and that of Spain to colo- 
nize this tract of land had failed ignominiously. In 
vain had the courageous missionaries, backed up by 
soldiers, tried to establish posts and missions in this 
region for nearly three centuries. Eew of these set- 
tlements were lasting. The Indians of the east were 
not attracted by the tame life of labor and obedience 
offered them by the priests; they lived near the mis- 
sions only as long as the supply of gifts held out, and 
then went back to their roving existence. The western 
missions were harassed and often destroyed by the fierce 
Comanches and Apaches, the scourge of Mexico's 
northern border. Until the last quarter of the 17th 
century there was no Spanish settlement east or north 
of the Rio Grande except Santa Ee, and no other, in- 

216 



THE KEVOLT OF TEXAS 

deed, in the whole of the Gulf shore region between 
that and San Augustin in Florida. 

Meanwhile, the brave attempt of the French under 
La Salle and others to plant colonies at the mouth of 
the Mississippi and in Texas in the Gulf region only 
resu ced in keeping a hold in that part of the country 
for England. |In 1803 Napoleon sold Louisiana to 
the United States. This meant the land from the 
Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada 
to Mexico, and took in nearly all of Texas. But in 
1819, the United States in purchasing Florida from 
Spain gave it Texas in exchange. 

Thus in the early part of the 19th century, • Spain 
and England faced each other across the indeterminate 
border separating Texas from the American territory. 
At this time, all that remained of the twenty-five mis- 
sions and forts founded first and last in Texas soil 
by the Spanish were the little Spanish settlements of 
San Antonio (or Bejas), Goliad (or La Bahia), and 
[N^acogdoches. 

The Anglo-Americans had begun to enter Texas be- 
fore the end of the 18th century. During the years 
1799 to 1801, a mysterious individual named Thomas 
Nolan, a protege of General James Wilkinson, .com- 
mander-in-chief of the United States army, made sev- 
eral expeditions into the Spanish province with a gang 
of men, ostensibly to trade for wild horses. The Span- 
iards feared, not without reason, that he meant to con- 

217 



MEXICO 

-quer Texas with the help of the Indians. The Spanish 
soldiers attacked his camp at the south fork of the Red 
River. I^olan was killed and the little hand captured. 
A Quaker, Ephraim Blackhurn, was chosen hy lot to he 
hanged. The rest were sent to Spanish penal settle- 
ments. Thus were the Spanish ideas of justice satis- 
:fied. 

The ferocity of the Spanish could not keep tne wild 
characters of the pioneer states of Kentucky, Louisiana, 
and other parts of the southwest from entering their 
territory. When the Revolution hegan in Mexico, such 
men sympathized with the insurgents in their struggle 
for independence. Gutierrez, one of Hidalgo's officers, 
liaving fled from Mexico, entered again from the Texas 
side, and easily succeeded in getting an ex-lieutenant of 
the United States army and one hundred and fifty-eight 
daring men to join him. Many of these came from a 
tract of land called the E'eutral Ground, hecause, ow- 
ing to border disputes, it belonged neither to the United 
States nor to Spain, and afforded a resort for des- 
peradoes. This expedition was soon in the thick of 
the Revolutionary struggle, hut found the warfare, in 
which the wounded and captured of the opposite side 
vrere^ always butchered, too bloody for their Anglo- 
Saxon tastes, and escaped from it as soon as possible. 

Still another party, led by James Long, organized a 
filibustering expedition into Texas in 1821. Their 
plan was to make Texas an independent republic. 

218 



THE KEVOLT OF TEXAS 

They were helped by the Mexican Liberals and were 
well treated on the whole, but the affair was not suc- 
cessful. 

During the first years of the 19th century, the Gulf 
coast of Texas swarmed with pirates, who found the 
dangerous, low-lying shores, protected by long, bare 
islands, ideal places of refuge. Galveston Island, oppo- 
site Galveston Bay at the mouth of the Trinity, was a 
noted pirate and slave-trading rendezvous, sheltering 
at one time over four hundred men of these gentle 
professions. The most celebrated pirate of this period 
was Jean Lafitte, who had plied his trade in the West 
Indies, and then off the Island of Barataria near the 
mouth of the Mississippi. He ran an organized gov- 
ernment on Galveston Island,/ which was in touch with 
the Liberal government in Mexico. He built fortifica- 
tions on the site of the present city of Galveston, and 
the flourishing town of Campeachy sprang up, founded 
on piracy. He claimed that he only attacked Spanish 
ships, and that he felt justified by the cruel treatment 
he had once received from a Spanish captain; but his 
men were not narrow in their views, and preyed upon 
United States vessels also. The attention of the gov- 
ernment at Washington was finally drawn to these 
merry men, and their nest was rudely destroyed. 

Meanwhile, settlers of a better class than filibusterers 
and pirates had their eyes on Texas. In 1819, a 'New 
Englander, Moses Austin, who had lived some time in 

219 



MEXICO 

Missouri, determined to found a colony there. He died 
before he could carry out his purpose, but his son 
Stephen took up the project and entered the country 
with a few men just in time to witness the rejoicings at 
the news of the independence of Mexico. After much 
trouble and many journeys to the City of Mexico, he 
obtained permission from the authorities to establish 
his colony with three hundred families; and this colony 
after two years of weakness and insecurity took root 
and flourished. It was the beginning of the modern 
population of Texas; a sturdy slip of Anglo-Saxon 
civilization planted in Mexican soil. Of course, these 
hardy, adventurous men did not change their character 
or adopt Mexican ways when they moved across the 
Rio Grande. From the first they clung to their own 
institutions, including slavery, free speech, popular 
elections, and practical self-government. 

At that time Texas was joined with the neighboring 
State of Coahuila. In 1825, this joint state passed a 
law encouraging immigration. Jt invited the entry of 
immigrants and guaranteed them security of person and 
property and the right to engage in any calling they 
might choose. The persons who brought in colonists 
were called empresarios. Many immigrants were thus 
attracted. In 1827, there were ten thousand people 
there, exclusive of Indians, and in 1830, nearly twenty 
thousand. Austin's colony continued to be the main 
influence. The United States had succeeded in a few < 

220 '\ 



THE KEVOLT OF TEXAS 

years in a colonization which the Spaniards had failed 
to accomplish during three centuries. 

It was not long before the Mexicans regi'etted this 
state of things. ^In the first flush of success, the new 
Republic had wished to open its gates to the Republic 
at the north; but soon differences of race and tempera- 
ment began to make themselves felt. Besides, Mexico 
knew that the United States secretly longed to possess 
Texas, for she had twice made offers to purchase it — 
offers which were indignantly refused. 

Under Bustamente's government, Mexico passed laws 
which made colonization by the Americans difficult, and 
in 1830, she forbade colonization in Texas altogether. 
Laws by which the colonists had been protected were 
repealed, troops were stationed at various points in 
Texas, and forts built at the most thriving towns of the 
colonists. The civil authority held by the empresarios 
was taken away, and martial law substituted. 

As an example of the way these things were managed 
— a Mexican colonel entered upon his duties in Goliad 
by "holding up the Mayor of the town at the point of 
the gun, and forcing him to deliver up the funds of the 
municipal treasury to the amount of ^Ye thousand dol- 
lars. He then proceeded forcibly to disarm the citizens 
of the district of Bejar, which was especially open to 
the attacks of the Indians. He impressed the best of 
the citizens into the army and finally compelled every 
family to support ^ve soldiers. 

221 



MEXICO 

The American frontiersmen were not people to stand 
this sort of treatment quietly. They organized for de- 
fense and captured nearly all of the Spanish forts. In 
so doing, they proclaimed, and rightly, that they were 
fighting for the defense of their homes and of the 
Mexican Constitution of 1824, which had been cast 
aside by the present military despots. They had as 
yet no desire to separate from the Republic, but invited 
the other Mexican states to join them. They formed 
a temporary government, elected a governor, and ap- 
pointed General Sam Houston commander-in-chief of 
their army. 

Sam Houston was a picturesque border character, 
Scotch-Irish by birth and Cherokee-Indian by adoption, 
who had worked up from early surroundings ruder even 
than Lincoln's, to become Governor of Tennessee, and 
then a Member of the ITational Congress. After con- 
sultation with President Andrew Jackson, he left Wash- 
ington suddenly and appeared in Texas. He made no 
secret of the fact that he had come to conquer Texas 
from the Mexicans. The Texans flocked to his stand- 
ard. ^Nevertheless, his army never numbered more 
than ten thousand men, poorly equipped with rifles and 
hunting-knives. With these he planned to wrest Texas 
from a country having a population of eight millions 
and a large standing army. 
y It was at this juncture that Santa Anna flew to the 
north to stamp out the rebellion. In February, 1836, 

222 



THE EEVOLT OF TEXAS 

he arrived with a large number of soldiers oefore San 
Antonio. Colonel Travis, a brave young Texan officer, 
v^ithdrew to the Alamo, a deserted mission, named 
after the cottonv^ood trees growing near by, with about 
one hundred and fifty men, including the celebrated 
fighter, Davy Crockett. Santa Anna and his soldiers 
began the siege of this building. Travis had sent a 
messenger for reinforcements, saying in his letter, "I 
will never surrender or retreat." He kept his word. 
The reinforcements did not come. He and his men 
fought desperately, in the face of overwhelming odds. 
Their struggle was of course hopeless. 

At four o'clock on the morning of Sunday, March 
6, the Mexicans made an assault and carried the gar- 
rison. Santa Anna and his soldiers swarmed in 
through the breaches and over the walls. Of all the 
garrison, all but four or -^Ye died fighting. Those were 
shot down in cold blood by the bloodthirsty commanding 
officer. Another laurel was added to Santa Anna's 
wreath — the Massacre of the Alamo. It was to sting 
him like a nettle before very long. '' 

At Goliad, shortly after, Santa Anna was responsible 
for the murder of sixty wounded Texans who had sur- 
rendered on condition that they should be treated as 
prisoners of war according to the usages of civilized 
nations. 

These outrages, like the "f rightfulness" of the Ger- 
mans at the present time, did not daunt the enemy, but 

223 



MEXICO 

only aroused in xnem a firmer determination to con- 
quer. At the battle of the San Jacinto River on the 
twenty-first of April, 1836, a small number of Ameri- 
cans under General Houston, charging to the war-cry 
of ''Remember the Alamo/' defeated about 1500 Mexi- 
cans. The Texans lost only 8 killed and 17 wounded; 
they captured seven hundred of the enemy, including 
the redoubtable Santa Anna himself. The Texans 
wished the latter to have the fate he had meted out to 
so many others, but General Houston spared him. He 
signed a treaty promising to cease hostilities; went to 
Washington, where he was entertained by President 
Jackson; the next year was released, on the promise to 
go home and secure the Mexican recognition of Texan 
independence. Of course, when he reached Mexico, he 
did nothing of the sort, but busied himself in making 
excuses for the failure of his campaign, and in explain- 
ing that he had only signed the treaty under force and 
had not meant a word of it. Being still coldly received 
by the Mexicans, he retreated to his hacienda, to wait 
until the memory of recent events should blow over. 

He soon had an opportunity to regain his prestige. 
In 1838, the French government sent a fleet to Mexico 
to demand payment of damages incurred by French 
citizens during the recent wars. The chief of these was 
a claim of $60,000 for pastry stolen from a French 
cook by revolutionists; therefore the whole affair was 
called "The Claim for Pie,'' or "The Pastry War," 

224 




The Alamo. 



IHK KJb:vOLT Oj^ TEXAS 

under which name it has gone down into history. The 
Mexican government refused to pay, whereupon the 
French forces under the Prince de Joinville captured 
the fortress of San Juan de Ulua and occupied Vera 
Cruz on December 5, 1838. Six hundred Mexicans 
wisre killed in the struggle. 

Sant^ Anna hastened to the sea-coast and defeated 
the foreigners at Vera Cruz in a well-fought battle, and 
forced them to return to their ships. During the fight- 
ing he was wounded severely in one leg, which had to be 
amputated. From now on he possessed a firm hold on 
the nation's gratitude ! He purchased a wooden leg, 
and afterwards, at the height of his popularity, had the 
missing part of his anatomy interred with great cere- 
mony in the Cathedral in the City of Mexico. 

Mexico, however, finally paid the French claim. 



CHAPTEK XYII 
WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES 

Texas was now an independent republic. On the 
red, white and blue of her flag she displayed a lone 
star ; and in the hearts of her people the memory of the 
Alamo and the other Mexican atrocities was burned so 
deep that they were ready to shed the last drop of their 
blood to defend their newly gained freedom. But the 
short-sighted politicians at the Mexican capital did not 
realize this. They talked boastfully of reconquering 
Texas; but they were so busy in starting revolutions 
or in holding their own against them that when it came 
to the point they could spend neither the time nor the 
money for a serious effort. The few expeditions that 
were sent against the former province only had the 
effect of exasperating the Texans and increasing the 
desire already felt by the Anglo-Saxons to defend them- 
selves by joining with the strong nation of their own 
blood at the north. 

Twice during the next few years, during Andrew 
Jackson's administration and Van Buren's, Texas peti- 

226 



WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES 

tioned to be annexed to the United States, and twice it 
was refused. Doubtless there was a feeling in the 
United States that such action would lead to trouble 
with Mexico; there were also internal political reasons 
against it. Slavery was beginning to agitate the na- 
tion. The South wished for the admission of Texas 
because it would increase the extent of slave-holding 
territory; the ^Northerners were opposed to it for that 
reason. During Polk's administration the Republic of 
the Lone Star again knocked at our gates ; this time the 
Southern element gained the day, and she was admitted, 
in March, 1845. 

Mexico resented this step bitterly. In fact, she had 
previously warned us that if Texas was annexed, it 
meant war. General Almonte, the Mexican Ambassa- 
dor in Washington, called the annexation an act of 
aggression, ^Hhe most unjust which can be found in 
modern history," demanded his passports and left the 
country. Owing to the unsettled state of Mexico, the 
United States had no representative there at the time; 
but it now sent a special envoy, John Slidell, to treat of 
the matter of Texas and the boundary disputes involved 
in it. Herrera, who occupied the Presidential chair at 
that time, agreed to receive him; but by the time 
Slidell reached Mexico, Herrera was overthrown, and 
General Parades was in power. Parades was a mon- 
archist, hated the United States, and refused to receive 
our envoy. Thus the two nations, on the verge of war, 

227 



MEXICO 

had no way to settle their difficulties. Mexico would 
neither declare war outright nor treat of peace. 

The Mexicans, ignorant and deceived by their fiery 
military leaders, were eager to go to war with the 
United' States. They were sure that they, fighters and 
descendants of fighters, could easily conquer the 
cowardly, peace-loving ^N^ortherners. Troops hastened 
to the northern border. At the same time President 
Polk sent General Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Flor- 
ida war with the Seminoles, to the mouth of the Rio 
Grande with orders to repel any invasion of the Texan 
territory that might be attempted by Mexican forces. 

The United States considered the Pio Grande the 
southern boundary of Texas; the Mexicans declared 
that the J^ueces, some distance to the north, was the 
boundary. With two armies facing each other across 
disputed ground, an encounter was sure to take place. 
It came when a party of Taylor's dragoons were at- 
tacked in April, 1846, in what the United States 
thought Texas territory, by Mexican soldiers in ambush. 
When the news reached the United States, the whole 
country was in a blaze of excitement. Congress voted 
ten millions to carry on the war. Thousands of volun- 
teers flocked to the recruiting offices. "Remember the 
Alamo" became the watchword. The real rights and 
wrongs of the war were disregarded. It was enough 
that American blood had been shed on Texas soil. 

Shortly after this encounter, Taylor's regulars de- 

228 



WAK WITH THE UNITED STATES 

feated the Mexicans at Palo Alto and the following day 
at Kesaca de Palma, in Texas. The Mexicans fled in 
wild disorder, leaving all their camp equipment and 
baggage behind. General Arista was recalled and 
General Ampudia sent to take his place. General 
Taylor marched his forces across the Rio Grande on 
the seventeenth of May, and the invasion of Mexico 
was begun in earnest. 

General Taylor, ''Old Rough-and-Ready," as he was 
called, was as different as possible from the pretentious 
Mexican officers. He looked like a respectable old 
farmer, never wore a uniform unless it was absolutely 
necessary, but dressed most of the time in an old linen 
suit and slouch hat, with, if the weather were cold, a 
disreputable brown army overcoat, a relic of the Florida 
campaign. The story is told that once during the 
Texas campaign he was notified that he was to receive 
a visit from a Commodore of the navy, who was noted 
for his spic-and-span appearance. To compliment his 
visitor and the navy. General Taylor made a heroic 
effort, delved at the bottom of an old chest, ^'and pulled 
out a uniform coat, that had peacefully slumbered for 
years in undisturbed quietude, slipped himself into it, 
in his haste fastening it so that one side of the standing 
collar was three button-holes above the other," and, 
very uncomfortable, waited for the expected visitor, in 
the meantime the Commodore, knowing of Taylor's 
aversion to full-dress, clothed himself in his plainest 

229 



MEXICO 

apparel. When the two heroes met, each was filled 
with astonishment at the other's appearance. After 
that time, General Taylor "took to linen roundabouts of 
the largest dimensions with more pertinacity than 
ever." His headquarters was an ordinary tent ; his dis- 
patch table a couple of rough boxes painted blue. He 
was very democratic in his manners, and adored by all 
the soldiers. 

As our army advanced into Mexico, they expected 
desperate resistance, and were surprised to find one 
little pueblo after another deserted, and no sign of the 
enemy but an occasional body of cavalry appearing and 
reappearing in the distance. The Mexicans were ap- 
parently concentrating at Monterey. The United 
States soldiers pressed on, until, tired and dusty after 
many days' march, from a point in the hills they came 
in sight of this city, the key to the north, very pictur- 
esque in its lovely, mountain-girt plain, with its spires 
and flat-roofed Spanish houses of various colors. The 
soldiers gazed at it with mixed feelings, for anxious 
as they were to attack, they saw that it was exceedingly 
well fortified and could not be taken without a hard 
struggle. Towering over the city at the right, on a 
spur of the mountains, was the Bishop's Palace, now 
used as a fortress ; in the center of the town was a very 
strong citadel ; each house was converted into a fortifica- 
tion, and the city itself was surrounded by thick stone 
walls, with ditches and bastions, bristling with cannon. 

230 



WAE WITH THE UJSTITED STATES 

A garrison of ten thousand soldiers was preparing to 
hold the place, with the help of the inhabitants, who 
were anxious to fight. General Taylor's force con- 
sisted only of about seven thousand men. 

Undismayed, General Taylor established his camp 
and made his plans. Soon the Americans began their 
attack. The fight lasted for four days. The Bishop's 
Palace, though strongly defended, was stormed and 
taken. The Americans fought their way into the town, 
tunneling through the walls of houses to gain cover 
for their advance. It became a hand-to-hand and 
house-to-house fight, in which the Mexicans resisted 
bravely, but were finally overcome. Taylor was in the 
thick of it, walking leisurely about the streets directing 
his men under a rain of bullets, quite oblivious to 
danger. On the twenty-fifth of September General 
Ampudia evacuated the town and retreated to Saltillo. 
Taylor was criticized by the politicians at Washington 
for allowing him to leave with all his men and the 
honors of war; but history has fully justified him, for 
with his small army and far from the base of supplies 
he could not take care of a large body of prisoners. 

The loss of Monterey taught Mexico that the United 
States soldiers could fight. All was confusion and dis- 
may at the capital. Up to this time Parades had been 
so busy trying to turn Mexico into a monarchy that he 
had paid little attention to the invaders at the north. 
!N'ow, however, he was aroused, and was preparing to 

231 



MEXICO 

lead an army to the north, when he was suddenly ouc;ted 
by the army, who pronounced in favor of Santa Anna. 

That redoubtable general, having been coldly received 
in Mexico after he lost the first campaign in Texas, had 
retired to Havana. ISTow he hastened back. The 
United States squadron was then blockading the Mexi- 
can ports, but Santa Anna slipped through on a pass 
which had been given him some time before. The 
Mexicans, forgetting their grudge, now hailed him as 
their deliverer. He was offered the dictatorship, but 
declined it in order to become Commander in Chief of 
the army. He was afterwards made Provisional Presi- 
dent. 

^T will die fighting," he declared, in his letter of 
acceptance, '^or lead the valiant Mexicans to the enjoy- 
ment of. a triumph. ... I will lend my aid to the 
service of my country, or perish amid its ruins !" Full 
of these noble sentiments, he bade his friends at the 
capital a tender farewell, and hastened to the seat of 
war, arriving at San Luis Potosi with his troops on the 
eighth of October. 

In the meantime the main command of the American 
army had been taken away from General Taylor and 
given to General Winfield Scott, who with a large force 
set sail for Vera Cruz. Many of Taylor's men had 
been ordered to inarch overland to join them, which left 
old "Kough-and-Keady" with but a few troops to meet 
the renowned Santa Anna with about four times as 

232 



WAK WITH THE UNITED STATES 

many. It was an anxious period for the little Ameri- 
can army in the heart of a hostile country, as the oppos- 
ing forces drew near. General Taylor made his dispo- 
sitions with great care. He thought it best to meet 
Santa Anna at a ravine called Buena Vista just beyond 
the pass from the mountain road which led from San 
Luis Potosi. Here a decisive battle took place — one 
of the most remarkable ones in our history. 

If the Mexicans still had doubts as to whether the 
Yankees could fight, they lost them now. A Captain 
Pike, who commanded a company of Arkansas cavalry 
in this engagement, and who seems to have been nearly 
as mighty with the pen as with the sword, has written 
some verses about it which may have faults as poetry, 
but are so full of spirit that I cannot help quoting them. 

From the Rio Grande's waters to the icy lakes of Maine, 

Let all exult, for we have met the enemy again. 

Beneath their stern old mountains we have met them in their 

pride, 
And rolled from Buena Vista back the battle's bloody tide ; 
Where the enemy came surging, like the Mississippi's flood, 
And the reaper Death was busy, with his sickle red with blood. 

Santa Anna boasted loudly that before two hours were past 
His lancers through Saltillo should pursue us thick and fast. 
On came his solid infantry, line marching after line. 
Lo, their great standards in the sun like sheets of silver shine! 
With thousands upon thousands, yea, with more than four to 

one, 
.A forest of bright bayonets gleamed fiercely in the sun! 

233 . 



MEXICO 

Lo ! Guanajuato's regiment ! Lo ! Puebla's boasted corps ! 
And Guadalajara's chosen troops! All veterans, tried before. 
And, galloping upon the right, four thousand lances gleam. 
Where, waving in the morning light, their blood-red pennons 

stream. 
And there, his stem artillery climbs up the broad plateau. 
To-day, he means to strike at us an overwhelming blow. 

(Here follow stanzas describing the battle in detail. 
It was very fierce, and for a while things looked badly 
for the Americans. But in the end — ) 

Still sullenly the cannon roared — ^but died away at last; 
And o'er the dead and dying came the evening shadows fast. 
And then above the mountains rose the cold moon's silver 

shield. 
And patiently and pityingly looked down upon the field. 
And careless of his wounded, and neglectful of his dead, 
Despairingly and sullen, in the night Santa Anna fled! 

(He retreated to San Luis Potosi with fragments of 
his fine army.) 

On the night after the battle of Buena Yista the final 
result was yet unknown, and the men were anxious, ex- 
pecting to make an assault next day. Everybody won- 
dered what General Taylor was planning. To their 
surprise, his tent was dark and quiet. His negro ser- 
vant, upon being questioned, said, smilingly, 

"I 'spec he fast asleep, captain, for he eat a mon- 
strous hearty supper, and when he eat a big supper he 
sleep berry hard and sound, and I reckon you won't se^ 

234 



WAE WITH THE UNITED STATES 

de old hos' 'fore four o'clock in de mornin' ! Listen, 
you hear him snore clean out here." 

General Taylor's snores carried joy to the camp* 
Everything must be all right, if "Rough-and-Ready" 
slept. 

This battle, so disastrous to the Mexican cause, was 
the triumph Santa Anna had promised the people of 
Mexico! But instead of dying, the General sat down, 
very much alive, and wrote his dispatches so cleverly 
that the Mexicans for a long time believed that they 
had won the battle! Santa Anna was soon recalled 
from San Luis Potosi to put down an insurrection in 
the capital, and General Taylor with his troops was left 
in undisputed possession of the north of Mexico. 

In March, 1847, shortly after the battle of Buena 
Vista, General Winfield Scott at the head of an army 
of about 12,000 men, reached the harbor at Vera Cruz 
and summoned that city to surrender. The general in 
command of the garrison refused. Scott accordingly 
landed his troops and began a bombardment of the city. 
A continuous rain of shot and shell was kept up for 
four days, killing many Mexicans, including non-com- 
batants who could not find shelter. On the twenty- 
seventh of March the city surrendered. The Mexican 
troops were allowed to salute their flag and march out 
with honors of war, and civil and religious rights were 
guaranteed to the inhabitants. 

The occupation of Vera Cruz was a great blow to 

235 



MEXICO 

the hopes of the Mexicans. But Santa Anna exhorted 
them in eloquent words, and succeeded in raising a new 
army with which he swore to contest the American ad- 
vance. Scott and his forces meanwhile advanced by 
the same route that Cortes had taken over three hun- 
dred years before. They encountered Santa Anna's 
army of 15,000 men at Cerro Gordo, between Vera 
Cruz and Jalapa, a mountain fastness of great strength. 
Yet here again Santa Anna was defeated and his army 
dispersed. Our men occupied Puebla without a shot 
being fired, and stayed there until August. Santa 
Anna returned to the capital, where he apparently made 
every effort to prepare for the final stand. It is on 
record, however, that during this time he was carrying 
on a secret correspondence with General Scott in which 
he intimated that if a million dollars were placed at 
his disposal, ten thousand of it to be paid at once, he 
would use every effort to bring about peace. Whether 
this was a ruse on his part to gain time for his prepara- 
tions, or whether he really desired to betray his country, 
has never been discovered. General Scott certainly did 
not place enough trust in him to delay his preparations 
for attack. 

On the eighth of August Scott's army took up its 
march towards the capital. In the same month, three 
hundred and twenty-eight years before, Cortes and his 
little band had advanced through the same country on 
a similar errand. Like them, the Americans toiled up 

236 



WAE WITH THE UNITED STATES 

the slopes of the mountains until they saw the fair 
valley of Mexico spread out before them, its city larger 
than in Aztec times, but its lakes sadly shrunken in 
size. As they descended the Sierras, they were halted 
at times by ditches cut in the road, or huge stones which 
had been rolled down from the mountains by Santa 
Anna's orders; but the very same Indians who had 
made these obstructions were easily persuaded to se^ 
to work to remove them. One army was much like 
another to these humble workers. Scott's men followed 
the route which led to the City of Mexico south of Lake 
Chalco. They fought another battle on August 18, at 
Churubusco, where a fortified convent was strongly de- 
fended by the enemy. Here again the Americans were 
victorious. So great was their elation that a small 
body of cavalry, under Captain Kearney, pursued the 
fleeing Mexicans to the very gates of the capital. 

Now they were within a few miles from the city. It 
loomed in front of them, wide-spread and formidable, 
with numerous works of defense, the chief of which was 
the great fortress, half castle, half palace, which 
crowned the Hill of Chapultepec, the pleasure-seat of 
the Aztec kings and of many of the viceroys. West of 
this fortress were two strong outposts, the Molino del 
Key, or King's Mill, supposed to be a cannon foundry, 
and Casa Mata, a fortified place containing a large 
deposit of powder. 

After an armistice of some days, which Scott granted 

237 



MEXICO 

at the request of the Mexicans^ and which Santa Anna 
broke by several hostile actions, the fighting began 
again. Under a fierce fire from the Mexicans the 
Americans attacked the King's Mill and Casa Mata and 
captured both positions. They lost many of their num- 
ber during these brilliant, but rash engagements. Santa 
Anna, as usual, would not acknowledge his defeat, but 
caused the bells of the capital to be rung merrily as if 
for a victory. 

The Mexicans pinned all their faith on the Castle of 
Chapultepec, which they believed to be impregnable. 
On the twelfth, the Americans began their bombard- 
ment of this stronghold and poured an incessant fire 
upon it until nightfall, when they slept on their arms, 
ready to begin again in the morning. At half-past five 
the next day the bombardment was continued. About 
eight o'clock the batteries suddenly ceased firing; a 
division of Americans under General Pillow rushed 
forward from the conquered Molino del Rey, climbed 
the steep slopes, raised their scaling ladders and poured 
over the walls of the castle. Another division under 
Quitman gained the south-east of the works in spite of 
the enemy posted outside, while other bodies of Ameri- 
can volunteers crossed the meadows in front under 
heavy fire and entered the outer enclosure of Chapulte- 
pec in time to join those from the west. In vain the 
brave defenders, including eight hundred military 
cadets, the Mexican West Pointers, tried to withstand 

238 



WAE WITH THE UNITED STATES 

the onslaught of the rash invaders. The Americans 
swarmed over the breastworks and carried all before 
them. The cadets, many of them, fought their first 
and last battle. Men at the guns either fled or were 
shot down. Officers fell at their posts, and brave old 
General Bravo, the Revolutionary leader, fighting to 
the last, was taken prisoner with a thousand others. 

The fall of Chapultepec put the final quietus to 
Mexican hopes of resisting the invaders. Santa Anna 
and his generals with the remnants of the army evacu- 
ated the capital at midnight, retreating to Guadalupe- 
Hidalgo, three miles away. The Americans entered 
the city on the following day. General Scott, who, 
unlike General Taylor, loved fine uniforms and dis- 
play, rode into the Plaza next day in great glory with 
his brilliant staff. The Stars and Stripes were hoisted 
over the National Palace. 

Santa Anna, still refusing to perish, as he had prom- 
ised, did the next best thing in resigning the Presi- 
dency in favor of his Constitutional successor, Pena-y- 
Pena, and disappeared. Some time later, after peace 
was declared, General Lane, hearing that he was at 
Tehuacan, near Puebla, sent troopers to capture him. 
They arrived at his hiding-place to find the nest still 
warm, but the bird flown! He had left behind his 
personal effects, which the troopers appropriated, all 
except his wife's wardrobe, which they chivalrously for- 

239 



MEXICO 

warded to her. It is said that they played base-ball 
with his wooden leg! 

Still later, Santa Anna, finding his own people un- 
appreciative of his great efforts, wrote to the minister 
of war for permission to leave the country, and to '^seek 
an asylum on a foreign soil where he might pass his, 
last days in that tranquillity which he could never find 
in the land of his birth." ^N'either Mexicans nor 
Americans desired to stop him, and so it happened that 
this arch-villain departed unmolested from the coun- 
try where so many better men than he had met violent 
deaths. He was not lacking in funds, for he had paid 
himself very liberally from the Mexican treasury when 
that was so low that there was scarcely money enough 
to maintain troops. He retired to Jamaica where we 
will leave him for a while. 

The expedition against Monterey and that which 
ended in the surrender of the City of Mexico did not 
include the whole campaign which the United States 
was making against Mexico. General Stephen Kear- 
ney, a hardy Indian fighter, led an army overland to 
'New Mexico, capturing Santa Fe in 1846. An army 
under General John C. Fremont was sent overland 
through New Mexico into California, and with the aid 
of the Pacific fleet of the United States, conquered 
that province, then only sparsely settled by roving In- 
dians, priests and Mexicans in the small, straggling 
villages of San Francisco, Los Angeles and other mis- 

240 



WAK WITH THE UNITED STATES 

sions. A wonderful achievement was the march of 
Colonel Doniphan and his force of Missourians over 
five thousand miles from the Middle West to Santa 
Ee, thence to Chihuahua, which thev occupied, on to 
Taylor's camp and then back to the United States. The 
whole story of this conquering of the West reads like 
an impossible romance. Such exploits, added to those 
of the armies which we have already described, of 
course made the surrender of Mexico inevitable. The/ 
treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, by which Mexico ceded 
to the United States, New Mexico, Texas and Califor- 
nia (which territory included also the present states 
of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah), in return 
for $15,000,000 was signed in February, 1848. 

She had given away — for the purchase price was 
comparatively nothing — enough land for an empire. 
That very year, 1848, gold was discovered in Califor- 
nia, as much to the astonishment of the Americans as 
of the Mexicans. The rush to California began. Over 
the Rockies and across the desert toiled the ^'Forty- 
Niners'^ in their prairie schooners, carrying to that 
sleepy coast not only seekers for gold, but Anglo-Saxon 
energy and brains. Mining towns sprang up in the 
mountains; the picturesque towers of the missions 
found themselves surrounded by American cities. The 
Indians of the New Mexican pueblos were first startled 
at the shriek of the railway engine, and then dressed 
themselves in their gayest blankets to sell their baskets 

241 



MEXICO 

at the stations. Texas sailed serenely on her tide of 
prosperity, forgetting that she ever owed allegiance to 
the distracted land on the other side of the Rio Grande. 
But the Mexicans do not forget. The old grudge 
rankles. Is it surprising that the most barbarous ele- 
ment of this childish, undisciplined people at times 
make "spite-raids" across our territory? Is it surpris- 
ing that the name "Yankee" stands for a certain re- 
proach ? 



CHAPTER XYIII 
BENITO JUAREZ, THE LITTLE INDIAN 

A VERY different sort of man from Santa Anna was 
next to influence the destinies of Mexico. About the 
same time that Santa Anna first saw the light of day, 
a son was born to a poor Indian family living in the 
State of Oaxaca. The Oaxacans are supposed to be 
the descendants of the mysterious people who built 
the great ruins of Mitla; certainly this boy, Benito 
Juarez, was to show some of the characteristics of a 
great race. Until he was twelve years old Benito could 
neither read nor write. Then he found a friend in a 
well-to-do man, who sent him to school and helped him 
to study law. Before long the ignorant Indian boy 
had become a full-fledged lawyer, then a member of 
the State legislature, then a judge, and then a Member 
of Congress during the American war. And yet people 
say that the Mexican Indians have not the power to 
advance ! 

From the very first, Juarez was an out-and-out Lib- 
eral ; that is, opposed to the military and church party, 
called the Conservatives, who oppressed the Indians. 

243 



MEXICO 

He knew that the ignorance and poverty of the Indian 
population was the cause of most of the trouhles in 
Mexico, and that if they had a chance to become edu- 
cated, prosperous and contented, they would not he the 
victims of the military leaders, and revolutions would 
cease. 

But at present they were far from ceasing. The 
war with the United States had not united the coun- 
try, but left it in confusion worse confounded. One 
ruler after another tried his hand at calming the trou- 
bled waters. Finally the Conservatives succeeded in 
having Santa Anna recalled from Jamaica and made 
President for the sixth time. The wooden-legged hero 
entered the capital in gTeat glory, welcomed by ban- 
ners and bells, cannons and triumphal arches and flow- 
ers. There were plenty of people there who knew him 
to be a robber and a traitor, but they did not dare to 
raise their voices while the Conservatives were in power. 
Santa Anna soon showed that he was the tool of forces 
who desired to destroy all republican government in the 
country; and he overreached even his supporters by 
calmly issuing a decree declaring himself Perpetual 
Dictator. 

At that crowning insolence, the indignation of the 
Liberals grew too hot to be suppressed. They sprang 
to arms and their movement to restore democratic ideals 
gained ground everywhere. In the civil war which fol- 
lowed, Santa Anna's Perpetual Dicatatorship was 

244 



BENITO JUAEEZ, THE LITTLE INDIAN 

rudely overthrown, and Santa Anna obliged to flee the 
country. He went to Cuba, and then honored the 
United States by coming to live on Staten Island. Long 
years after, he returned to the City of Mexico, and died 
there at the age of eighty, "unwept, unhonored, and 
unsung.'^ 

This successful revolution of the Liberals, sometimes 
called the Ayotla revolution, because it produced the 
Plan of Ayotla, was headed by another pure-blooded 
Indian, Juan Alvarez, who was shortly after made 
President, and entered Mexico City escorted by a body- 
guard of natives. Another revolutionist, Comonfort, 
was made Minister of War, and Benito Juarez Chief 
Justice. Alvarez soon resigned his position to Comon- 
fort, who thus became President. 

The new Liberal government adopted the famous 
Constitution of 1857, which astonished the world by 
its provisions for universal liberty. Slavery was abol- 
ished — this was four years before the United States 
freed its slaves — freedom of speech and press guaran- 
teed, religious toleration established and the right of 
the people to govern firmly upheld. It represented all 
the ideals for which Mexico had been struggling for ^ 
forty-seven years, ever since the Cry of Hidalgo, and for \ 
which it was still fighting up to a very recent period. 

Of course such a Constitution met with great op- 
position. The Conservatives broke out again in full 
force, and a terrible war, called "The War of the Re- 

245 



MEXICO 

form," followed. The chief leaders of the Conserva- 
tives were the Generals Zuloaga, Miramon, Tomas 
Mejia, a full-blooded Indian, and Marquez. Church 
officials took part in the fighting. ''It was a struggle 
in which the monk appeared, cross in hand, at the head 
of charging troops; in which the curse of the Church 
was sounded from a multitude of altars; in which the 
treasures of centuries were torn from walls and altars, 
fighting Indian patriots forcing their way into dim, 
hallowed interiors, gleaming with gold, silver, many- 
colored jewels . . . painted and sculptured Christs and 
Madonnas." ^ In this so-called ''Holy War" the 
Church urged its soldiers to the massacre of helpless 
prisoners. Marquez, one of its favorite generals, was 
called the "Tiger of Tacubaya," because he executed at 
Tacubaya, in cold blood, a number of captured Liberal 
officers and medical students who had been caring for 
the wounded of both sides. The Liberals, of course, 
retaliated by murdering their prisoners. 

Comonfort became frightened at the tumult he had 
raised, and resigned the Presidency. Benito Juarez 
as Justice of the Supreme Court was now legally Presi- 
dent, according to the Mexican rule of succession, but 
had no money to carry on the government. He was 
obliged to leave the capital, and finally the country. 
He soon returned, however, and set up his government 
at Vera Cruz. He had the Indian qualities of pa- 

* Creelman. 

246 



BENITO JUAREZ, THE LITTLE INDIAN 

tience and staying power. He would never give up 
as long as tie knew himself to be the true President. 
Meanwhile the Conservatives got the upper hand, ruled 
in the capital, and General Miramon twice tried to cap- 
ture Vera Cruz, but without success. 

When the Liberal cause was thus at its lowest ebb, 
Juarez did a superbly defiant thing; he issued his fa- 
mous Reform Decrees, which dealt a heavy blow at 
the Church, his bitterest and most powerful enemy. 
Though a devout Catholic himself, Juarez knew that 
the meddling of the Church in politics and the hoarding 
of the greater part of the wealth of the country in its 
coffers were bringing about the ruin of Mexico. By 
his decrees he confiscated all the property of the 
Church for the use of the nation, and in other ways 
destroyed the Church's hold on the government. 

Though the Church was enraged, the Liberals, or 
Juarists, as they were now called, received fresh cour- 
age from the new laws, and many recruits joined their 
ranks. Gradually they began to triumph. A battle 
at Guanajuato gave them a decisive victory, and put 
an end, for the time being, to the War of the Reform. 
The "Little Indian" was enabled to move his govern- 
ment from Vera Cruz to the capital. This was on the 
eleventh of June, 1861. The Mexicans had ended their 
civil war just before the guns of Eort Sumter an- 
nounced the beginning of the United States' great con- 
flict 

247 



MEXICO 

It looked as if the distracted southern Eepublic were 
to enter upon a new era of peace and prosperity; but, 
alas, the defeated Conservatives had another card up 
their sleeves. If thej could not overthrow the Repub- 
lic by rebellion at home, they would see what the med- 
dling of European nations could accomplish ! 



CHAPTER XIX 

• MAXIMILIAN, MEDDLER AND MARTYR 

In a palace by the sea, far away from troubled Mex- 
ico, there lived at this time as handsome and romantic 
a young couple as you could find in many a day's jour- 
ney. Their names were Maximilian and Carlotta. 
Maximilian was an Archduke, the brother of Franz- 
Josef, the Emperor of Austria; Carlotta was the 
daughter of the former King of Belgium, Leopold I, 
and sister of the reigning one, Leopold II. Maximil- 
ian was thirty, Carlotta twenty-four. They were very 
much in love with each other, and lived apparently the 
"happy ever-after'' life of some fairy-tale Prince and 
Princess in their white dream-castle looking out upon 
the blue Adriatic. He had been, while still a youth. 
Admiral of the Austrian navy, and later Governor of 
the Italian territory of Austria. He had retired from 
these posts, to pass his time in writing books and poems, 
and in strolling through the shady paths of his grounds 
at Miramar. He was a tall, blond-bearded, blue-eyed 
man, handsome and serious. Carlotta, dark-eyed, 
pretty and spirited, busied herself with many works 

249 



MEXICO 

of charity. It seems incredible that the Mexican tur- 
moil could touch the lives of this happy, far-away pair. 
It did so, however. One can imagine Montezuma, 
leaning from the shadows, to say to Maximilian, "You 
are young, as I was ; rich, as I was ; happy, and power- 
ful. Go and take the crown which was stolen from 
me." Maximilian obeyed; and he paid for the crown 
in the same way that Montezuma did — with his life ! 

The Liberals had won the victory in Mexico; and 
many black-robed priests and Conservatives in league 
with them had fled to Paris. They had hopes of re- 
viving their lost cause, of recovering the rich lands the 
Liberals had taken from them, and the power they had 
abused. N"o way was too base for them, not even be- 
traying their country into the hands of foreigners. 

In Paris these plotters managed to get the ear of 
the ruler of the French, Napoleon III, who was as 
much of a schemer as they. He admitted them to his 
great palace of the Tuileries and soon became inter- 
ested in their schemes. ISTapoleon III was a nephew of 
the great l^apoleon, and wished to show himseK as 
much of a man as his uncle. What could prove his 
ability more plainly than to bring this wonderful land 
of Mexico, now torn by its dangerous desires for self- 
government and religious freedom, securely under 
French control, made over into a monarchy after the 
European pattern, with Roman Catholic institutions, 
and a prince of Napoleon's own choosing to govern it? 

250 



MAXIMILIAN^, MEDDLER AND MARTYE 

In this way a foothold would be gained in the ITew 
World for all the Latin nations, Mexican riches would 
flow into French treasuries, a barrier would be raised 
against the progress of the Anglo-Saxons in America, 
and much glory be added to his own name. 

A pretext was all that was needed to set these plans 
in motion ; and that was soon ready. The Liberal gov- 
ernment in Mexico, lacking funds on account of the 
years of struggle the country had endured, passed a 
law temporarily suspending payments to its foreign 
creditors. Erance took counsel with Spain and Eng- 
land, and they agreed to intervene in Mexico in order 
to settle their financial claims and protect their citi- 
zens. The United States was invited to join, but de- 
clined. 

In December, 1861, the fleet flying the flags of the 
three countries entered the Vera Cruz harbor. Troops 
were landed, and the commissioners, as the representa- 
tives were called, went to Orizaba to meet President 
Juarez and his advisers. Much to the disappointment 
of the Erench, the affair went smoothly. A treaty 
was drawn up which satisfied the Spaniards and Eng- 
lish. But Erance had not come in order to be satis- 
fied. Her commissioners acted in such a way that the 
others began to suspect there was "a nigger in the wood- 
pile" — that money-claims were not all ^Napoleon had 
in mind — and withdrew themselves and tKeir forces. 
^Napoleon now had a clear field. 

251 



MEXICO 

The French General, Lorencz, had been told by the 
Mexicans in Paris that the natives would hail him as 
a deliverer and strew his path with flowers. With this 
idea in mind he began his march up from the coast. 
Alas, the flowers mysteriously turned into bullets ! The 
people came out in force to oppose the invaders. The 
Liberal army hastened towards the scene. But the 
Conservatives who had planned the invasion had come 
over with the Trench and were now busy buying over 
their own people with French gold. By this means, a 
considerable army, hostile to President Juarez and 
friendly to the invaders, was formed, with General Al- 
monte at its head. 

On May 5, 1862, a battle took place at Puebla be- 
tween the defending Mexicans and the invaders. Jt 
resulted in the defeat of the latter. General Lorencz, 
who had thought his task would be so easy, was obliged 
to retreat in haste to the seacoast. The Mexicans were 
wild with delight. They had conquered the French, 
who were themselves the conquerors of the world ! To 
this day the fifth of May, "El Cinquo de Mayo,'' is a 
national holiday, the Mexican Fourth of July. 

It is all very well to dissemble your love, 
But why did you kick me downstairs ? 

l^apoleon was no quicker at taking a hint than the 
hero in this immortal ballad. He was grieved, but 
not seriously disquieted; at least, not to the point of 

252 



MAXIMILIAN, MEDDLEK AND MAETYK 

withdrawing his troops. He was more than ever de- 
termined to intervene, as he called it (he was much 
too polite to speak of conquest), and force upon the 
Mexicans the kind of government he thought they 
ought to have. He accordingly sent over 25,000 more 
soldiers under General Forey, who announced to the 
astonished populace that he had come to "free Mexico 
from the tyrannous demagoguery of Benito Juarez, 
against whom, and not against the Mexican nation, he 
was making war." He arirved in Orizaha in October, 
1862, but delayed action for several months, and it was 
March of the next year before he reached Puebla. 

This ''City of the Angels," the scene of too many 
non-angelic conflicts, had, since the victory of El Cin- 
quo de Mayo, been even more strongly fortified than 
before. It was divided into blocks, each of which had 
to be fought for separately and taken by assault. The 
French did not flinch at the task, nor the Mexicans 
shrink from the defense. 

"Night and day the battle raged in the streets of 
Puebla, which were strewed with the dead and dying. 
The roaring of artillery in the narrow roadways, the 
crashing of shells, the blaze of rifles, the falling of 
cannon-smashed walls, the shrieks of the wounded, the 
fierce shouting of the French and Mexican soldiery as 
they charged against each other or contested the smok- 
ing ruins inch by inch, went on ceaselessly," says the 
historian, Creelman. Conspicuous in the fighting on 

253 



MEXICO 

the Liberal side was a young man by the name of Por- 
firio Diaz. 

Finally, when a "ring of fire and steel" was about 
Puebla, when food and water could not reach the city, 
and the sufferings of the people had become unbear- 
able, the Mexican guns were dismounted, and the he- 
roic little army surrendered. The Trench entered the 
city on the seventeenth of May. 

After this, the march to the capital was easy. On 
the night of the twenty-ninth of May, a forlorn and 
ragged army passed silently out of the City of Mexico. 
They were the remnant of the defeated Liberals, the 
rightful defenders of their country, now forced to flee 
before the invaders and the traitors among their own 
people. Escorted by them, the true ruler of Mexico, 
President Juarez, carrying the State papers, jogged 
over the rough country roads in the little black coach 
driven by his faithful Indian coachman, who wept at 
his master's ill-fortune. With him went his Cabinet. 
The defeated government found refuge for a while at 
San Luis Potosi. In the meantime, on the thirtieth of 
May, the French entered the City of Mexico. 

Now the dreams of ISTapoleon seemed to come true. 
Flags flew from all the windows and balconies to wel- 
come the French army, cheers greeted them, and only 
friendly and smiling faces were seen. All the leading 
people who had opposed the invasion had of course left 
the city, and the Conservatives, now in power, saw to 

254 



MAXIMILIAN, MEDDLEK AJSTD MAKTYE 

it that the lower classes had cause for celebration. In 
other words, the pulque flowed freely, and with plenty 
of pulque, a peon does not care who is in power. 

General Forey went through the farce of appointing 
a temporary government, consisting of three Mexican 
executives and an ''assembly of notables,'' to decide on 
a permanent form of government for the invaded na- 
tion. The ''Notables" were of course chiefly notable 
for being mouthpieces of the French and the Conserva- 
tives. They presently announced that Mexico should 
be a monarchy "under the sovereignty of a prince of 
the Catholic faith; that this monarch should be known 
as Emperor of Mexico ; that his Royal Highness, Prince 
Ferdinand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, should 
be asked to accept the Imperial Crown for himself and 
his descendants." 

So our story comes back to the young Prince and 
Princess in their glistening chateau on the Adriatic 
Sea. The stage had been set; the cue spoken; it was 
time for the entrance of the chief actors of the historic 
tragedy. 

JSTapoleon III had several reasons for choosing Maxi- 
milian to carry out his plans in Mexico. First, he was 
a personal friend, one who had been at many house- 
parties at the Tuilieries and St. Cloud ; second, he came 
of a family, the Hapsburgs, who were well used to 
reigning; third, he had, Napoleon thought, just the 
right blend of dignity and pliability to fit him for the 

255 



MEXICO 

post. In other words, lie would be under Xapoleon's 
thumb, without appearing to be so. So the Emperor 
judged; but he was wrong. 

Some of the intriguing Mexicans in Europe were 
now sent to Miramar as Xapoleon's messengers, to ex- 
tend to the young Archduke a flattering invitation to 
come and rule over a countrv of which he knew next 
to nothing and with which he had not the faintest nat- 
ural connection. But that did not matter — the Mex- 
icans were wild to have him; so, at least, the wily 
spokesman, Gutierrez de Estrada, gave Maximilian to 
understand. 

^^We, who are but the feeble interpreters of the hopes 
and prayers of a whole nation, come to present in that 
nation's name to your (Imperial Highness the crown of 
the Mexican Empire, which the people offer you, 
prince, freely and spontaneously, by a solemn decree 
of the i^otables, already ratified by many provinces, 
and which soon will be, as every one says, by the en- 
tire nation." The speaker then handed Maximilian 
the vote of the E'otables engrossed on parchment, and 
enclosed in a handle of solid gold. 

What prince would have been proof against such 
flattery? Certainly not Maximilian. But, with a 
scruple that did him credit, he said he would not go 
unless the vote of the whole Mexican nation called him. 

This demand was somewhat of a facer for the Mex- 
ican wire-pullers. In the uncivilized condition of 

256 



MAXIMILIAIT, MEDDLEK AND MAETYR 

Mexico it would have been impossible to collect a real 
vote. The authorities therefore did a much more sat- 
isfactory thing — for them — they took up a "straw 
vote" in regions strictly under French control. This 
they arranged on paper to appear that it included the 
whole nation and that the Mexicans were in favor of 
Maximilian by a large majority. 

A second deputation waited upon Maximilian at 
Miramar with the news. By this time it was nearly 
a year since the French had reached Mexico City and 
to all appearances gained control of the country. The 
French army under Bazaine had been busy subduing 
those incorrigible natives in the outlying districts who 
still dared to resent the invasion. President Juarez 
in his little black coach had been forced further and 
further from his rightful capital — first to San Luis 
Potosi, then to Saltillo and Monterey. Later on he 
crossed the desert to Chihuahua, and finally landed at 
Paso del ITorte, just across from the United States bor- 
der. In the south, the young General Diaz had for a 
long time managed to hold Oajaca against the Imperi- 
als, but finally was forced to surrender. 

While these conflicts had been going on in Mexico, 
other conflicts had been taking place in the mind of 
the future Emperor. He seems to have had a pre- 
monition that all would not be well with him there. 

"Must I separate myself from my own beautiful 
country?'' he wrote in his diary at this time. "You 

257 



MEXICO 

speak to me of a scepter, a palace and power. You set 
before me a limitless future. Must I accompany you 
to far shores beyond the great ocean ? You desire that 
tbe web of my life should be wrought with gold and 
diamonds. But have you power to give me peace of 
mind? Do riches confer happiness in your sight? 
Oh, let me rather pursue my quiet life beside the shad- 
owing myrtle. The study of science and the muse are 
more pleasing to me than the blaze of gold and dia- 
monds." 

Why indeed did he go, we might inquire ? Why not 
stay by his myrtles, since he loved them so much ? But 
the Archduke was perhaps not of such a retiring dis- 
position as his writings implied. With all his pic- 
turesque regrets, he was quite convinced of his own 
importance in the scheme of things. He called him- 
self, in one of his literary productions, '^poor flutter- 
ing insect of a day" ; but in the next sentence he spoke 
of feeling the pride of ^'majestic power, God-given," 
throbbing in his veins. It would be ^'agreeable," he 
thought, to stand at the top of some grand marble 
staircase, and, "glancing downward over all the world, 
to feel myself the First, like the sun in the firmament." 
Here spoke the descendant of the Emperor Charles V 
of Germany and I of Spain — not the trifler with the 
Muse in shady gardens. 

To readers to-day this blue-eyed, poetry-writing 
archduke may seem pompous and sentimental. A keen- 

258 



MAXIMILIAJ^, MEDDLER AJN^D MARTYR 

witted American thought him so then. The American 
Ambassador at Vienna, John Motley, wrote to Oliver 
Wendell Holmes: 

There is no glory in the gi-ass nor verdure in anything. In 
fact, we have nothing green here but the Archduke Maxi- 
milian, who firmly believes that he iS going forth to Mexico 
to establish an American empire, and that it is his divine 
mission to destroy the dragon of democracy and reestablish the 
true Church, the right divine, and all sorts of games. Poor 
young man! 

Poor young man indeed ! 

Carlotta was even more anxious for imperial hon- 
ors than her husband, and she urged him to take the 
final step. The second party of deputies found the 
couple, gorgeously dressed, standing in state in the re- 
ception hall, in the midst of their attendants, ladies 
of honor, and nobles. It was a beautiful day in April, 
1864. Upon receiving a copy of the vote, Maximilian 
accepted in gracious words, and took the oath of office. 
The Mexican flag was run up over Miramar, the Aus- 
trian ships in the harbor thundered salutes, and the 
delegates who had betrayed their country to foreign- 
ers were moved to tears by the solemnity of the oc- 
casion. 

Maximilian went to Rome to obtain the Pope's bene- 
diction, and soon after, he and Carlotta set sail for the 
"New World. On the voyage, they amused themselves 
by inventing rules of etiquette for their imperial house- 

259 



MEXICO 

holds, choosing uniforms for their bodyguard, design-" 
ing decorations and medals. They were like two chil- 
dren playing at being king and queen, rather than seri- 
ous rulers of a distracted country. 

Their arrival at Vera Cruz was very disappointing. 
'Not only did a heavy rain cast a damper on their spir- 
its, but the deputation sent from the capital to welcome 
them had not arrived. They entered the port as ordi- 
nary citizens, without creating the least excitement. 
Soon, however, the official welcomers arrived, and the 
party took carriages for Orizaba. The roads were 
washed out with rain; a broken axle nearly landed 
Maximilian and Carlotta in the ditch. But they 
reached Orizaba safely, and there the scene changed. 
The rain had stopped, and the Indians, rendered en- 
thusiastic by the Conservatives in the well-known way, 
turned out to welcome the royal party with flowers and 
smiles. Erom Orizaba to the capital their journey 
appeared to be a triumphant progress. They entered 
the City of Mexico in a blaze of glory: the hot June 
sun, the flags, the streets and balconies crowded with 
hurrahing people, recalled the entrance of Cortes at the 
time of Aztec splendor. 

Sara Yorke Stevenson, an American girl who was 
there and has written an interesting book on Maximil- 
ian, tells us that as the tall, fair, beautiful couple, gra- 
ciously smiling and bowing, passed through the ranks 
of their small, brown, ragged subjects, most of the spec- 

260 



MAXIMILIAJST, MEDDLEE AJSTD MAKTYR 

tators could not help thinking that the legend of the 
Pair God had come true at last. 

Maximilian and Carlotta were enthroned with great 
splendor in the Cathedral of Mexico, and presently 
went to live in Chapultepec Castle, the pleasure pal- 
ace of the Aztec kings, now remodeled in an expensive 
manner to suit the latest occupants. There they held 
an elaborate court, modeled after that of Austria. 
They ate their meals from plates of solid silver and 
gold, costing a round million of dollars. They rode 
in a state coach made, like Cinderella's, of glass, and 
heavily gilded. It was unlike Cinderella's in costing 
$47,000 from the State treasury, instead of merely the 
wave of a fairy wand. To-day this coach may be seen 
in the National Museum of Mexico, alongside of Presi- 
dent Juarez' shabby little black carriage. 

It is said that $5000 in Mexican gold was handed on 
a gilt plate to Maximilian every morning for pocket 
money, and about $500 given to Carlotta in the same 
way. Besides this, Maximilian spent huge sums on 
all kinds of foolish luxuries for himself and the court. 
The debts incurred in Paris and London at this time 
have formed a heavy drain on Mexican resources ever 
since. 

Of course the society people and the tradespeople in 
the City of Mexico benefited for the time by all the 
French money spent there. Such people, and others 
too ignorant to know better, approved of the new 

261 



MEXICO 

regime. The Erench brouglit an air of gayety and ele- 
gance to the always attractive capital. Their officers 
soon learned how to make love to the pretty senoritas 
by "playing the bear/' Mexican fashion; that is, rid- 
ing up and down in front of the window, casting long- 
ing glances at the loved one, or riding behind her car- 
riage in the Paseo. They made up a French word 
for this kind of courtship ; "noviotage," from "novio,'' 
betrothed lover. With the Mexicans, it ends finally in 
marriage; with the French, it did not have time to, so 
short was their stay. 

Maximilian spent the summer in traveling about his 
empire. Upon his return, instead of pondering the 
serious affairs of empire, he wasted his time settling 
trivial points of etiquette in his court. In place of 
drawing the strongest men he could find about him, he 
appointed to the most important posts incompetent for- 
eigners who knew nothing of the country. He had a 
wild idea of conciliating his opponents, the Liberals, 
most of whom would not be conciliated on any terms; 
but in the vain attempt to win them over, he neglected 
and offended the French and Mexicans who had brought 
him there. He opposed Napoleon's plans for the de- 
velopment of the country, and introduced impracticable 
projects of his own. He hindered General Bazaine's 
actions, and disapproved of his attempts to create a 
national army. Carlotta, his "better half," tried to 

262 



MAXIMILIAJSr, MEDDLEE AND MARTYR 

help him, hut was given to understand very plainly 
that she must not meddle in affairs of state. 

One of Maximilian's pet plans was a Department of 
the 'Nsivj, As the Mexican government did not even 
own a canoe, much less a battleship, this created much 
merriment, Sara Yorke Stevenson tells us. Captain 
Destroy at, a French naval officer, was made Secretary 
of the Navy. He lived on a street which was often 
flooded in rainy weather. One morning after a heavy 
downpour some of his friends set sail to a tiny fleet of 
toy ships, which, bravely flying the Mexican flag, tacked 
as toy ships will and came to an anchor just at his 
door. It was his Mexican navy! The officer enjoyed 
the joke, but Maximilian, who heard of it, was much 
offended. 

Far away, in the mountains of Chihuahua, the stolid 
Indian, Benito Juarez, with only his faithful Secre- 
tary of State, Lerdo de Tejada, to keep him company, 
watched and waited. His army was melting away, he 
had no money, his claims were ignored by most of the 
civilized nations, and yet he did not give up, for he 
knew that he was the real ruler of Mexico, and that 
this ^'Emperor" was only an impostor — an innocent 
one, perhaps, but an impostor none the less. 

When Maximilian had been in Mexico but a few 
months, Napoleon showed that he was becoming tired 
of his bargain. "I think," he wrote to General Ba- 
zaine in August, "that the Emperor should show more 

263 



MEXICO 

decision/^ He knew Maximilian was not strong 
enough to stand alone. 

To tell the truth, ^N'ap.oleon's scheme was meeting 
with opposition both at home and abroad. "One can 
do anything with bayonets but sit upon them," re- 
marked '^Plon-Plon/' Prince I^apoleon, the Emperor's 
brother. He meant that Maximilian's throne, which 
depended entirely upon the bayonets of the French 
army, was not a safe or a comfortable resting-place. 
The Erench had thought at first that the majority of 
Mexicans would be pleased with the new regime. In- 
stead, they heard news of uprisings, of martial law, 
burned villages, and wholesale execution of the natives. 
The Erench asked themselves what was the use of all 
this, especially as they saw nothing of the far-famed 
Mexican riches, but instead had continually to lend 
the country large sums of money. 

But even more disturbing to ITapoleon than the com- 
plaints of his own Chamber of Deputies was the re- 
monstrance of a foreign power — the United States. 

Only the strain and stress of the Civil War had kept 
Uncle Sam from voicing his sentiments about the Mex- 
ican tangle some years before, l^apoleon knew this, 
and probably never would have invaded Mexico if he 
had not thought the United States in no position to 
interfere. It was absolutely against the Monroe doc- 
trine that foreigners should meddle in this way with 
the affairs of the American continent, and now that 

264 



MAXIMILIAI^, MEDDLEK AND MARTYK 

the war was over, and even before it was over, the 
United States expressed its resentment in no unmis- 
takable terms. About a month before Maximilian's 
arrival, our Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, forwarded 
to our ambassador in Prance a copy of a resolution 
passed by our House of Representatives expressing its 
unanimous opposition to any recognition of a monarchy 
in Mexico. Upon Maximilian's arrival, our Ambas- 
sador in Mexico, the Hon. Thomas Corwin, left the 
country. 

After the defeat of the Southern Confederacy, the 
United States was in a position to back up its requests 
with a splendid army of veterans. It insisted upon 
the withdrawal at once of the French troops from the 
continent of North America. In 1866 General Sheri- 
dan began massing his troops on the Mexican border. 
The Liberals took courage and rallied to their stand- 
ards. Napoleon was forced to send orders to General 
Bazaine to draw his troops in toward the capital. This 
was the first move of the final complete retreat. As 
the French troops fell back, the Liberals advanced 
towards the capital from north and south. 

We are getting a year ahead of our story. In Octo- 
ber, 1865, Maximilian, still under the delusion that 
his empire was successful, and hearing that Juarez had 
crossed over to the United States, took ii into his head 
to consider the Revolution at an end, and issued a fool- 
ish and cruel decree, permitting all armed Republicans 

265 



MEXICO 

to be taken as outlaws, tried by court martial, and sbot 
Avithin twenty-four hours. In other words, this decree 
legalized the murder of prisoners whose only crime 
had been fighting for their country. It was called "El 
Bando !N"egro," the "Black Decree," and raised a storm 
of indignation in the United States as well as in Mex- 
ico. 

By this time l!^apoleon was in the shadow of war at 
home, and could no longer spare a single soldier for 
Mexico. In the winter of 1866, he sent Baron Saillard 
to Mexico to warn Maximilian that he must prepare 
for a gradual withdrawal of Erench forces. Maximil- 
ian paid no attention. In May Napoleon sent another 
still more decisive letter. In this, he went back on 
the agreement made when Maximilian accepted the 
throne, by which Erench armies were to be kept in Mex- 
ico for six years, and said that the last detachment of 
the Erench army must be out of the country by 'No- 
vember 1, 1867. He told Maximilian that he must ex- 
pect no more Erench money, but must instead give the 
Erench one-half of the revenues from the customs at 
Tampico and Vera Cruz. 

Maximilian unwillingly agreed to this violation of 
the treaty, not apparently realizing what it would mean. 
He was like a sleeper whom nothing short of an earth- 
quake would arouse. The earthquake had not yet 
come. Maximilian, only faintly aware of the distant 
rumblings, went on with his dream of empire^ 

266 



MAXIMILIA]^, MEDDLEK AND MAETYR 

In a few months it became evident, even to him, that 
things were going wrong. The Liberal armies were 
growing larger and larger, and coming nearer and 
nearer. The French soldiers were preparing to leave. 
None were left to defend Maximilian's throne but his 
Imperial legion, which consisted of French volunteers,. 
Belgians, Austrians, and renegade Mexicans. There 
was no money in the Imperial treasury to pay them, 
and they were fast turning into brigands, who robbed 
the people right and left. Maximilian's brother, 
Franz-Josef, Emperor of Austria, wished to send him 
troops, but was prevented by the United States. At 
last it began to dawn upon the Emperor that his Em- 
pire was melting away. Should he abdicate before it 
was too late? 

As usual in all crises of his life, he hesitated. And 
while he was hesitating, his ^'better half" took matters 
into her own hands. Pretty, proud Carlotta, king's- 
daughter and sister. Empress on her own account, could, 
not believe that Napoleon would really let her hus- 
band lose his throne. Womanlike, she was sure she 
could accomplish everything by a personal interview. 
She told her husband that she herself would go to Eu- 
rope and persuade Napoleon to think better of his con- 
duct. On July 13, 1866, she set sail from Vera Cruz, < 
accompanied only by a lady-in-waiting, Madame Del 
Barrio. 

Before they reached France, Madame Del Barrio- 

267 



MEXICO 

tells us that the poor Empress was in a state of great 
nervous excitement. This increased when she found 
no one to welcome her at their landing-place of Brest, 
nor at Paris. She trembled from head to foot when 
she stepped into the hired carriage that took them to 
their hotel. Eor twenty-four hours Napoleon ignored 
her, but on the second day one of the Empress Eu- 
genie's chamberlains came with a note from him ask- 
ing Carlotta to tea at the summer palace of St. Cloud. 

Carlotta went. She had an interview with ^N^apoleon 
and Eugenie which lasted an hour or longer. Sud- 
denly Madame Del Barrio, who was waiting outside, 
heard her cry in agonized tones, 

"Indeed |I should have known who you are and who 
I am! I should not have dishonored the blood of the 
Bourbons in my veins by humbling myself before a 
Bonaparte, who is nothing but an adventurer !" There 
was the sound of a fall. Madame Del Barrio rushed 
into the room to find Carlotta lying on the floor, while 
the Empress Eugenie, much distressed, bent over her 
and tried to revive her. Napoleon had brought on the 
fainting fit by telling Carlotta that he could do noth- 
ing more for her husband. 

The Empress of Erance put a cup of water to the 
lips of the unfortunate Empress of Mexico. Carlotta, 
reviving, dashed it away, crying that Eugenie was try- 
ing to poison her. 

As soon as Carlotta was able, she hastened to Rome 

268 



MAXIMILIAI^, MEDDLEE AND MAKTYE 

to see the Pope, Pius IX. With a wild disregard of 
etiquette, sne rushed past the chamberlains at the Vat- 
ican, and into the Pope's presence. Her face was hag- 
gard, her eyes wild. She threw a handful of chest- 
nuts on the table in front of the astonished Holy Father. 

"These, with water from a fountain, are all I have 
had to eat and drink for twenty-four hours,'' she ex- 
claimed. "Napoleon's agents are trying to poison me!" 

The Pope did not realize at first that the Empress's 
mind was affected by her troubles. He ordered food 
to be brought, and she ate ravenously. But soon it 
became apparent that she was insane. She insisted 
that every one was trying to poison her, and would eat 
nothing but eggs laid in her presence by hens kept in 
her hotel suite! She haunted the Vatican every day. 
Presently her family took her away, raving mad, and 
shut her up in a Belgian castle, where she is still liv- 
ing. She never again saw her husband. She never 
knew the fate that befell him ! 

To Maximilian one day in October came the terrible 
news about Carlotta. He was overcome. Further re- 
sistance did not seem worth while, and very early on 
the morning of October 21, 1866, he left Mexico City, 
intending to go to Vera Cruz and take the Austrian 
m^n-of-war that was waiting there to convey him to 
Europe. He had gone no further than Orizaba when 
he made one of his fatal changes of mind. 

In some mysterious way a mysterious German priest 

269 



MEXICO 

called the Abbe Fischer bad gained an influence over 
the mind of Maximilian. The Emperor, during the 
first part of his reign, had tried to break awaj from 
the High Church party, who were chiefly responsible 
for bringing him over. He had offended the Pope 
deeply by not taking any steps to recover the lands of 
the clergy. He had sent into exile two notorious High 
Church generals, Miramon and Marquez, who had led 
the High Church forces in the late wars. He had 
done everything he could to win over the Liberals to 
Ms side. But now the Liberals were all against him 
once more, and the Abbe Fischer, his bad angel, was 
whispering to him to join forces again with the Church 
and the Conservatives. He persuaded the Emperor not 
to abdicate, not to leave the country, but to stay and 
fight. Maximilian consented. 

"Maximilian has got him a horse and is off to con- 
quer an empire !'' said Marshal ITiel, one of J^apoleon's 
generals, when he heard of this decision. 

Greatly rejoicing, Generals Marquez and Miramon 
landed once more in Mexico, and offered their swords 
to the cause. It was arranged that they should join 
with a native general, Thomas Mejia, in a campaign 
against the Liberals. On December 1, 1866, Maximil- 
ian issued a proclamation to the Mexican nation, de- 
claring that he would remain at his post till the end. 
On the twelfth, he went back to Mexico City. 

Soon after, the French army left the capital. They 

270 



MAXIMILIAIT, MEDDLEK AND MARTYR 

passed a great building where all the windows were 
curtained, and not a face was visible. It was the Na- 
tional Palace. At a window, well hidden by the cur- 
tains, a tall, bearded man watched the last soldier pass 
out of sight. It was Maximilian. 

"At last,'' he exclaimed, turning to his secretary, 
"I am free!'' 

He was as free as a man in a cage of tigers with the 
door locked from the outside! 

One of Maximilian's first acts was to issue orders 
to his generals to grant no quarter to prisoners at arms, 
and to sentence the chief men of the Liberals, includ- 
ing the President, to be shot, if captured ! This order 
fell into the hands of Juarez and did not help matters 
when Maximilian came to be judged. 

The Republican generals Corona and Escobeda were 
advancing from the north towards the capital, while 
the I)rilliant, fearless Diaz was preparing to capture 
Puebla and then march towards Mexico City. Maxi- 
milian was in a trap. His Cabinet advised him to 
put himself as commander-in-chief at the head of his 
forces, and collect his army at Queretaro, where they 
might put a stop to Corona's and Escobeda' s advance. 
Maximilian did so. He had about 10,000 men at 
Queretaro. General Miramon, the more capable of his 
two generals, wished to attack the Republican forces 
at once, before they combined and surrounded the city. 
General Marquez objected, and Maximilian sided with 

271 



MEXICO 

him. Several days passed in indecision, and mean- 
while the Republicans were coming nearer. Soon they 
had invested the town, and it was too late to strike. 
General Marquez then took all the available cavah'y 
and left for the capital. His retreat, of course, was a 
bad thing for the defense. His excuse was, that he 
would bring back reinforcements within twenty days; 
but the weeks passed and he did not return. He was 
profitably occupied in robbing the inhabitants of the 
City of Mexico of everything they possessed. At last 
the inhabitants turned upon the ^^Leopard," as he was 
called, and it is said that he only escaped by hiding 
himself in a new-made grave. He found his way to 
Cuba, where he lived for twenty-seven years before he 
dared come back to Mexico. So much for one of Maxi- 
milian's principal defenders. 

The siege at Queretaro lasted for two months, with- 
out the Imperial forces accomplishing anything in par- 
ticular. But some of Maximilian's best qualities now 
came to the front, and he won all hearts by his kind- 
ness and courage. He shared the hardships of the 
siege, and was reckless in exposing himself to fire, his 
tall figure making him a conspicuous mark. He did 
not appear to realize how serious affairs were, and 
spent much time conferring decorations and honors on 
his favorites. One of these was his aide-de-camp. 
Prince Salm-Salm, an Austrian who had married a 
very attractive American girl. He had fought on the 

272 



MAXIMILIAN, MEDDLER AND MARTYR 

Union side in the United States and had now come to 
help put down what he considered the rebellion in Mex- 
ico. His wife was looked down upon by the conven- 
tional ladies in Mexican society because she took the 
field with her husband, like a soldadera, or woman 
<;amp-follower, mounted on a big steed and dressed in 
a uniform of blue and silver. She and her husband 
were the most loyal friends poor Maximilian ever made, 
and did everything to help him in his tragedy. 

By the night of the fourteenth of May, even the Em- 
peror knew that things were almost hopeless. As a 
last resort, he and Miramon planned to cut their way 
out of the city. On the night before the expected sor- 
tie, the Emperor and his staff retired as usual in their 
headquarters in the convent of La Cruz. A young 
lieutenant of artillery, named Haus, and his men, 
guarded the gate to the convent garden. Suddenly one 
of Maximilian's most trusted officers, Colonel Lopez, 
appeared at the gate, followed by a body of soldiers. 

"These are a reinforcement of artillery," he told 
Haus. "Arouse your artillerymen, have this gun taken 
out of its embrasure, and turned obliquely to the left, 
quickly." 

Haus thought the order a strange one, but, since his 
colonel gave it, he had to obey. The gun was turned 
aside and the strange soldiers entered. Haus stopped 
to pick up his sword and zarape, which he had left on 
the ground behind him. They were gone. He turned 

273 



MEXICO 

to the officer in charge of the strange soldiers, to ask 
him what had hecome of the missing articles, and saw 
that he also was a stranger. 

"Who are you?" he asked. 

The officer replied that he was one of the brigade 
of General Mendez, an Imperial general. 

Hans knew all the officers in this brigade, and knew 
that this man was not one of them. Moreover^ there 
seemed an unusual stir and confusion. His suspicions 
were aroused. Again he asked the officer who he was, 
and received another and quite unsatisfactory answer. 

"Amid so many falsehoods, I suspect treason !" Haus 
exclaimed. 

"Have no fear, senor," the strange officer replied, 
after a moment's hesitation. "You are in the hands 
of the regular army. We are not guerilleros; we be- 
long to the battalion of the supremos poderes of the re- 
public." 

"What? We are in the hands of the enemy? But 
how was it that Colonel Lopez let you in? He must 
be a traitor." 

An old sergeant who was standing by said sadly, 

"Are you only now finding this out?" 

Meanwhile enemy troops quietly filled the convent, 
taking the places of the Imperials. When Maximilian 
awoke, not one of his guard was in his apartments. 
Rushing out with his minister and secretary to see what 
had happened, he found himself face to face with the 

274 



MAXIMILIAN", MEDDLEK AND MARTYR 

Liberal officer in command, who, in order to save Maxi- 
milian's life, pretended not to recognize him and let 
him pass into the town. In the plaza Maximilian and 
his officers, Miramon and Mejia, tried to collect their 
scattered forces, but the army had deserted, almost in 
a body. Lopez, the traitor, not yet known as such to 
Maximilian, joined him. He begged Maximilian to 
hide in a certain house. "I do not hide," exclaimed 
the Emperor proudly. He also refused the horse that 
Lopez offered him that he might escape. A flag of 
truce was sent to the Republican camp, and Maximil- 
ian surrendered his sword to Colonel Echegaray. He 
was taken back to his old quarters in La Cruz con- 
vent. The Liberal officers came to call on him and 
spoke contemputuously of Lopez, who had betrayed him. 
*'Such men are used, then kicked," said one. 

Maximilian was slow, as usual, to realize his danger. 
He was told that he must stand trial for his life. He 
tried to put them off with a childish excuse. He was 
no longer Emperor of Mexico, he said, but only an 
Archduke of Austria, entitled to safe passage to Eu- 
rope. This was because he had signed an act of ab- 
dication a month before. As he had kept the act se- 
cret at the time he signed it, had particularly drawn it 
up to take effect only when he should be killed or cap- 
tured, and had meanwhile gone on issuing imperial de- 
crees right and left, it was about as much good as an 
accident insurance policy drawn after the accident. 

275 



MEXICO 

President Juarez, the dogged Indian wHo Had at last 
come into his own, ordered the court-martial to pro- 
ceed. Maximilian, Miramon and Mejia were tried* 
In twenty-four hours the verdict was returned — death t 

In Maximilian's case it was because: He 'had in- 
vaded the country without right or claim ; he had called 
in foreigners to assist him in unjust warfare; he had 
overthrown the Constitution and the institutions of the 
country; he had destroyed the lives and property of 
Mexicans;' and (the Black Decree come home to roost!) 
he had barbarously decreed the murder of Mexicans 
who were, defending their country. 

The Queen of England, ItTapoleon of France, the 
Emperor of Austria, the condemned man's brother, and 
the United States government, all sent messages to 
Juarez, begging him to spare the royal culprit. Prin- 
cess Salm-Salm, after several daring but unsuccessful 
attempts to effeqt the ex-Emperor's escape from the 
convent, herself went to Juarez and fell on her knees, 
asking him to pardon Maximilian. Juarez replied: 

^'I am grieved, madam, to see you thus on your 
knees before me ; but if all the kings and queens of Eu- 
rope were in your place, I could not spare his life. It 
is not I who take it, it is the people and the law, and 
if I should not do its will the people would take it and 
mine also." 

Erom the moment that Maximilian received the sen- 
tence the tawdriness and triviality dropped from him, 

276 



MAXIMILIA]^, MEDDLEE AND MARTYR 

and he became, in reality, what he had been before only 
in pretense, a hero. He quietly made ready for death, 
dictating letters, arranging his affairs down to the last 
detail, and spending much time with a priest, who ad- 
ministered the last sacraments. This priest was not 
Father Fischer, who had long since fled. 

A night or two before the time set for execution 
Maximilian sent a telegram to Juarez, asking him to 
spare the lives of his generals Miramon and Mejia. It 
is said that Juarez offered Mejia his pardon, but the 
loyal little general refused it. 

Shortly before the end, Maximilian wrote the fol- 
lowing letter to Carlotta; 

My Beloved Carlotta : If some day you are permitted by 
God to be restored, you will hear of the increasing misfortune 
which has followed me since you departed for Europe. You 
carried my soul away with you. My hopes have been shat- 
tered by so many unexpected strokes that death is a joyous 
release rather than an agony. I go down gloriously as a sol- 
dier and as a king, defeated but not dishonored. If your 
suffering be such that God may summon you to be with me, 
I will bless the divine hand which has been laid so heavily 
upon us. Farewell. Farewell. 

Your unhappy Maximilian. 

A short time before his execution Maximilian was 
informed that Carlotta was dead. "It is well," said 
he. "There is one tie less to bind me to the world." 

Shortly after daybreak of June 19, a carriage pro- 
cession made its way to the Hill of the Bells, on the 

277 



MEXICO 

outskirts of Queretaro. Four thousand soldiers of the 
Republic and a great crowd of citizens were gathered 
there, waiting for the event that was to make this a 
Mexican holiday, l^ear a low adobe wall an officer 
and seven soldiers with rifles also waited. 

The carriage arrived. Two Mexicans in blue and 
silver uniform, a priest, and a tall European in a frock 
coat alighted. The priest seemed about to faint, and 
the European held smelling-salts to his nostrils. 
"What a beautiful day!" he said, as he breathed the 
fresh morning air. "On such a one I have always 
wished to die !'' As the three condemned advanced 
towards the wall, the tall man said to one of the gen- 
erals, 

"A brave soldier. General Miramon, should be hon- 
ored even in his last hour; permit me to give you the 
place of honor." To Mejia, "General, what has not 
been rewarded on earth, will be in Heaven." 

The speaker then distributed gold among the sol- 
diers in the small squad, and asked them to aim care- 
fully at his heart, not at his face, that his mother, to 
whom his body would be sent, might recognize him. 
He requested of the officer that his eyes might be left 
unbandaged. Then, turning to the crowd, Maximilian, 
one-time ruler of Mexico, made his last speech to his 
former subjects: 

"Mexicans ! May my blood be the last to be spilled 
for the welfare of the country; and if it should be 

278 



MAXIMILIA]Sr, MEDDLEE A:N^D MAETYK 

necessary that its sons should still shed theirs, may it 
flow for its good, but never by treason. Long live in- 
dependence! Long live Mexico!" 

The speaker laid his hand on his breast, drew him- 
self up to his full height, and looked straight in front 
of him. A volley of shots rang out on the still air; 
^ve passed through Maximilian's body. The Emperor 
and the Empire were dead! 



CHAPTER XX 
^^TA.Z— THE DESPOT 

The mountain state of Oaxaca, ancient dwelling 
place of the race which built the superb tombs of Mitla, 
has produced two strong men of modern times: Benito 
Juarez, the great Liberal President, and Porfirio Diaz, 
often called the Maker of modern Mexico. 

When, in a whirlwind of conspiracies and revolu- 
tions, Santa Anna reentered Mexico after the war with 
the United States and was made Supreme Dictator, he 
decided to have a farcical sort of election, all the polls 
being guarded by his soldiers. Porfirio Diaz, the son 
of a Spanish inn-keeper and half-breed Mixtec woman, 
was then a young lawyer — he had studied law under 
Juarez — and a professor in the Institute of Law at 
Oaxaca. He was a thin, erect young man, with some- 
thing of a military bearing, dark hair which stood up 
straight from his well-shaped forehead, and large, dark 
eyes of a peculiar intensity and brilliance. Though 
most of his life had been spent in hard study, he had 
had some military experience of the ''Boy Scout" or- 
der, when he and other juniors had organized a brigade 

280 



DIAZ— THE DESPOT 

to protect the city of Oaxaca during the war with the 
United States. 

Santa Anna's voting day came. There were shotted 
cannon at each of the four corners of Oaxaca' s public 
square, and soldiers with set bayonets guarded all the 
streets. The professors of the Institute were to vote 
in a body. Though Liberals, they saw the necessity 
of voting for the Dictator — that is, all but one. He 
refused, says James Creelman, Diaz' biographer, to cast 
a vote. One of the professors asked him the reason. 

^'J^o one need vote unless he chooses," replied young 
Diaz. 

^'Yes," replied the professor with a sneer. "One 
docs not vote when he is afraid." 

Diaz instantly seized the pen and wrote down his 
vote for General Alvarez, who was then leading the 
revolution against Santa Anna in the south. The next 
moment he had disappeared. He knew well that his 
life was in danger, and before the police could catch 
him he had escaped through the city gates, in company 
with a well-known bandit, and was in hiding in the 
mountains. 

Before a year had passed the wheel of government 
had turned once more, the Liberals were on top and 
Santa Anna ousted. General Alvarez was made Presi- 
dent, Juarez a Cabinet Minister, and young Diaz was 
sub-prefect, or mayor, of Iztlan, a mountain district. 

The Indians of Iztlan were thought to be very cow- 

281 



MEXICO 

ardly. Diaz got a number of them together, stood them 
in a line, then threw off his jacket and went through a 
series of setting-up exercises which showed his power- 
ful muscles. He told the Indians that he had once been 
a thin, weak boy with a flat chest, but that he had de- 
veloped himself by these exercises and that they could 
do the same. The Indians consented to be drilled, 
first in the athletic exercises, then in military methods, 
and before long formed a fine body of soldiers. They 
were to fight for Diaz in many battles. 

Throughout the War of the Reform, Porfirio 
Diaz, as has already been seen, was an active fighter 
on the Liberal side. Tor two years, in spite of an 
unhealed wound in his side received in his first battle, 
he harassed the Conservatives in the mountain regions 
of Oaxaca. "No Indian of the surrounding jungles 
was more swift of movement or keen of eye. He could 
walk or run or crawl or climb with the most desper- 
ate of the forest-bred. He could trail an enemy with- 
out sleep or food. He seemed to see in the dark. His 
Indian soldiers followed him into the most dangerous 
situations without question, for their broad-shouldered, 
restless, tireless leader seemed to have ^second sight' 
and a charmed life." -^ 

When the Liberals contested Maximilian's empire,, 
one of the youngest but most brilliant generals in the 
£ghting against the French was Porfirio Diaz. In the 

^ Creelman. 

282 



DIAZ— THE DESPOT 

battle of the fifth of May at Puebla, in which the 
Erench were beaten, he was in command of a part of 
the front and pursued the enemy for a long distance^ 
When the French attacked Puebla again a year later,. 
Diaz commanded a brigade of the defense with great 
bravery and skill. But the city had to surrender, and 
Diaz and the other officers were taken prisoner. The 
next day they were to be sent to Vera Cruz on their 
way to French fortresses. That very night Diaz, 
wrapping himself in his serape, managed to escape un- 
der the nose of the officer of the guard and made his 
way on foot to the City of Mexico. 

When Juarez had to abandon the capital and re- 
treat before the victorious French, Diaz received com- 
mand of the main body of the Mexican army. He 
skillfully retreated with it to Oaxaca, through a vast 
territory already entered by the enemy's forces. He 
held out thei-e a long time, but at last General Bazaine 
with more than ten thousand picked men marched 
against him in person, and Diaz, after a month and a 
half's siege with only twenty-eight hundred men, was- 
forced to surrender. 

He was taken back to Puebla as a prisoner, closely 
guarded, and shut up in the strong convent of Santa 
Catarina. Every night here for five months he worked 
at boring a hole in the solid cement floor under his -bed, 
through which he hoped to reach the street. Before 
he had finished his labor he was moved to another con- 

283 



MEXICO 

vent. Instead of being discouraged lie began all over 
again his plans for escape. He managed to communi- 
cate with friends outside who stood ready to receive 
him. On the night of the twentieth of September, 
1865, he managed to escape over the roofs and by means 
of ropes to the street, and gained the house of friends, 
who furnished him with horses, a servant, and guide. 
Soon the daring adventurer was racing towards the 
mountains of Oaxaca, where his devoted mountaineers 
quickly gathered around his standard. 

The day of the French in Mexico was drawing to a 
close. Diaz came thundering up from the south while 
Juarez was returning towards* his rightful capital and 
Maximilian was making his last stand at Queretaro. 
And soon the dashing young general with his devoted 
troops was once more in front of Puebla, from which 
he had fled by night a year and a half before. Four 
years ago the French troops had been unable to take 
this strongly protected city until the garrison had been 
starved into surrender. Diaz began the attack from 
fourteen different points at once and in a few hours 
entered the city in triumph. 

Within twenty-four hours after this victory, he met 
Marquez on the road from Mexico and defeated him 
and his army. Marquez fled back to Mexico. Diaz 
with his army moved up towards the city, and began 
a siege. At the end of seventy days, Mexico capitu- 
lated. It is said that the first act of the victorious 

284 



DIAZ— THE DESPOT 

general was to order all the army bakers to stay up 
all night baking bread for the starving garrison and 
population. 

Soon after this, Juarez was re-elected President and 
Diaz returned to Oaxaca. He had won great fame 
and his honor was as bright as his sword. 

With the Liberals triumphant and the honest Little 
Indian once more President, it seemed as if Mexico 
might have been happy; but such was not the case. 
Murmurs were heard against Juarez. These came es- 
pecially from the Liberals who had served in the army 
and had been dismissed, too hastily, they thought, at 
the end of the war. One of the most prominent and 
discontented ex-army officers was Porfirio Diaz. 

When Juarez came up for re-election in 1871, he 
found opponents of his own party arrayed against him : 
Lerdo de Tejada, his former minister; Porfirio Diaz, 
his former pupil, supporter and friend. 

Juarez won the election. At once there were armed 
uprisings all over the country. Diaz issued the "Plan 
of La I^oria" denouncing the government. Fighting 
went on for about a year, and then one morning in July, 
1872, solemnly tolled bells in Mexico City proclaimed 
to the people that their President had died suddenly 
during the night from heart failure. 

Though Juarez was the first Mexican President to 
die in office, he had given his life to his people more 
truly than most of the sword-flourishing, so-called patri- 

285 



MEXICO 

ots. He liad served the best interests of his country 
single-heartedly, and he died simple, honest, and poor, 
as he had lived. In him the Indians lost one of the 
best friends they ever had. 

Lerdo de Tejado, who was Justice of the Supreme 
Court, succeeded legally to the Presidency, and Diaz 
retired and made a pretense of farming. But plots 
were seething in his ambitious brain, and one day he 
disappeared. Soon after. General Hernandez, one of 
his friends, announced a new "plan." Diaz reappeared 
in the north as if by magic. He had been organizing 
a revolution in Texas. From Sonora to Yucatan the 
^^Porfiristas" sprang to arms. But luck was against 
Diaz this time. The government troops were strong, 
and the revolutionists met with little success. Their 
leader fled from the country. 

The mail steamer, City of Havana, sailing from !N'ew 
York not long after, had among its passengers a quiet, 
inoffensive man registered as a Cuban physician re- 
turning to Havana. He wore smoked glasses, and, as 
some of the passengers observed, a wig. Aside from 
these peculiarities, he attracted little attention till the 
steamer touched at Tampico, where a number of Mex- 
ican officers and soldiers boarded her. One of the of- 
ficers stared rudely at the Cuban physician, and called 
the others' attention to him. The physician looked an- 
noyed, and slipped away. 

Later in the afternoon, just as it was growing dusk, 

286 



DIAZ— THE DESPOT 

while the City of Havana was still anchored four miles 
outside Tampico, there was heard a splash and a cry 
of ''Man overheard!" The ship's crew lowered a boat 
at once, taking in it some of the Mexican officers, who 
seemed desirous to help in the rescue. 

The man in the water did not wish to be rescued. 
The waning light showed him swimming madly for 
shore. As the boat drew near he turned and circled y 
and finally dived as if to elude them. But the pur- */ 
suit kept up, and at last the swimmer was dragged, 
half-drowned, into the boat. His wig was off, his 
glasses were gone, and the straight, bristling hair, the 
dark, brilliant eyes and strong features of Porfirio 
Diaz were plainly recognizable. 

He was in the hands of his enemies, the government 
officers and troops. They could do nothing to him on 
board the American vessel, but as soon as they reached 
Vera Cruz a firing squad and a stone wall were wait- 
ing. 

Diaz was taken back to the ship, and closely watched. 
But through the help of the American purser, who 
threw a life-preserver overboard to distract the atten- 
tion of the Mexicans, who thought it was Diaz over- 
board again, he managed to give them the slip and hide 
in a small clothes-press in the purser's room. The Mex- 
icans searched the ship, and not finding him, concluded 
he was again risking death from sharks and drowning. 
Much disgusted, they gathered in the purser's room 

287 



MEXICO 

to divert their minds over a game of cards. They were 
so close to Diaz that he feared they would hear his 
breathing. He was not discovered, however, and 
stayed in this uncomfortable retreat for three days, 
fed by the purser. When the ship reached Vera Cruz 
he was helped to escape by some of the sailors, who 
rowed him to a spot on the shore where a man was 
waiting with horses. Diaz leaped into the saddle and 
made straight for Oaxaca. Richmond was in the field 
again ! 

From that time on the revolution of Diaz was plain 
sailing. Lerdo, the President, was obliged to flee a 
few days before the legal expiration of his term, and 
Porfirio Diaz entered the capital in triumph on ]^o- 
vember 23, 1876. He was welcomed enthusiastically, 
being popular with the army and a great part of the 
people. In the new election, with his soldiers guard- 
ing all the polls, he received, strange to say, the ma- 
jority of votes! And so, in typical Mexican fashion, 
Porfirio Diaz became the legal ruler of the country. 

Whatever we may think of the way in which Diaz 
gained the Presidential chair, we must acknowledge 
that he made a strong ruler. The main features of 
his policy were these: to put dowTi disorder and clear 
the way for a peaceful development of Mexico and its 
resources; and to induce foreign capital and foreign 
enterprise to help open up the country. He carried 
out both these aims to the last letter. 

288 



DIAZ— THE DESPOT 

When Diaz was first made President, the country 
was swarming with brigands, many of them soldiers 
and officers of the disbanded Liberal army. Whole 
villages were seized by the bandits and loans forced 
from them. The stage coach running between the cap- 
ital and Puebla was sometimes robbed four times on a 
single journey, the passengers being stripped even of 
the clothes they wore. (Some taking this trip thought- 
fully provided themselves with newspapers in case of 
such emergency!) During the Empire, Marshal Ba- 
zaine, in command of the City of Mexico, once ordered 
a number of Zouaves to dress in women's gowns with 
wide hoop skirts according to the fashion of the times, 
and take seats inside the stage. The gay coach-load 
had not traveled four blocks from the center of the 
city when it was attacked by robbers. A fusillade 
poured out of its windows by the supposed ladies gave 
the robbers the shock of their lives! 

Diaz realized that many of the bandits had taken to 
this life because they had no way of earning an honest 
living. Accordingly, he offered them positions in his 
newly organized body of rurales, or national mounted 
police. In picturesque uniform of tight-fitting gray 
cloth, with flaming red neckties and wide sombreros, 
armed to the teeth and mounted on splendid horses, the 
ex-bandits patrolled all the roads. Woe to the unre- 
formed comrade plying his trade who crossed their 
path! The wisdom of setting a thief to catch a thief 

289 



MEXICO 

was never proved more thoroughly than by Porfirio 
Diaz. In a short time brigandage entirely disappeared, 
and travelers could go all over Mexico with safety. 

Every now and then rebellions cropped up, but they 
were promptly nipped in the bud. Diaz was a mili- 
tary man above all things. The army adored him (he 
paid their salaries promptly) ; the rural police were at 
his service ; thus he had a better control of the country 
than previous rulers. He had been Eirst in War — 
he desired to remain First in Peace — and if he was 
not First in the Hearts of his countrymen, there were 
very few who dared admit it. The practice of stand- 
ing dissatisfied persons up against a wall and shoot- 
ing them at sunrise, and the other one of drafting them 
into the army to serve in some unhealthful locality, had 
much to do with keeping the country quiet. 

At the end of his first term in 1880, Diaz stepped 
aside in favor of his friend. General Manual Gonzalez. 
He had to do this because he had put himself on rec- 
ord as favoring a "one-term" Presidency. This was 
his excuse for opposing Juarez. When Gonzalez' four 
years were up, however, Diaz was elected President 
again and remained in the office without a break till 
the year 1910. This is the longest term of office held 
by any President in the world. How he accomplished 
it will be seen later. 

Diaz governed well in a financial way. When he 
succeeded Gonzalez the finances of Mexico were at the 

290 



DIAZ— THE DESPOT 

lowest ebb. The country had no credit at home or 
abroad. Diaz, with the help of his able Minister of 
Finance, Limantour, managed so that debts were paid 
as they became due and a large national capital ac- 
cumulated. This was partly through economy in the 
administration of the government, and partly through 
the increased revenues due to the growth of Mexican 
commerce and industries. 

When Diaz first came to the Presidency, there was 
but one short railroad in the country — the one which 
connected Vera Cruz with the capital. Before he 
ended there were more than ten thousand miles of rail- 
road. The country was opened up from ocean to ocean, 
and from the United States to Yucatan. Most of these 
were built by United States capital. Trolley lines and 
electric lights, telephones and telegraphs, improved 
street cleaning and water systems, made the larger Mex- 
ican cities as comfortable to live in as American ones, 
and incidentally made money for the foreigners who 
installed them. The pueblos of the Indians, however, 
remained just as primitive and probably more unsani- 
tary than in Aztec times. 

Great engineering works, also accomplished by for- 
eigners, improved the harbors on both coasts. Cotton 
mills, tobacco factories, sugar refineries, sprang up as 
if by magic. Before Diaz, mining rights in Mexico 
had been difficult for foreigners to obtain. He made 
them easy. He allowed foreigners to acquire control 

291 



MEXICO 

of the great plantations in coffee, rice, sugar, cocoa and 
other products, which were worked by cheap native la- 
bor. When lands which he desired to sell were held 
in small lots by the Indians, having been passed from 
father to son ever since Aztec times, he took a clever 
way to dispossess them. In the year 1894, notices were 
posted requiring landowners to appear on a certain day 
before a certain official and swear to their claims. 
Most of the peons could neither read nor write, thanks 
to the priests who were supposed to educate them, so 
of course they paid no attention to the notice. Thereby 
they lost their title to their lands, which were taken 
from them, and sold by the government. The peons 
were forced then to labor on the plantations or in the 
mines, where they were paid such small wages that 
they at once fell in debt with no hope of ever getting 
free. This made them liable to arrest if they tried to 
leave their employers; that is, reduced them to com- 
plete slavery. So they sunk lower and lower. All 
travelers in Mexico during Diaz' time, no matter how 
much they were impressed by the surface prosperity 
of the country, spoke of the appalling poverty of the 
lower classe*. A prosperity which is founded on such 
poverty must not and cannot endure. 

It is only fair to Diaz to say that his long rule has 
been divided by the historians into two periods: the 
first, when he governed without help ; the second, when, 
as he grew older, he came under the influence of a 

292 




Diaz, 



DIAZ— THE DESPOT 

group of advisers, consisting of his Cabinet and the so- 
called cientificos, who were not really scientific men, as 
the Spanish term implies, but merely clever, unscrupu- 
lous persons, solely on the outlook for their own in- 
terests. The first part of Diaz' rule was much better 
than the last. At the first, the Indians loved him; at 
the last, they hated him. Under the influence of his 
advisers, his love of power grew, until it robbed his 
administration of even the pretense of justice. 

For instance, at the ^beginning of Diaz' power the 
newspapers were in the habit of criticizing the gov- 
ernment freely. One day, it is said, Diaz sent his po- 
lice to arrest some of the most outspoken editors and 
shut them up in a prison intended only for the worst 
criminals. They were kept for a week on a diet of 
bread and water. Then they were summoned before 
the President. 

^^]^ow, gentlemen," he asked, 'Vhat do you think of 
my government?" 

"Senor^ President," they replied, "we look upon it 
as the finest government on earth." 

"Just continue to think so, gentlemen, and we shall 
get along splendidly." 

After that there was no more trouble with the papers. 

The Mexican Congress under Diaz resembled a school 
debating society. The members spent their time lis- 
tening to minutes of the last meeting, and holding de- 
bates of a literary character. Occasionally they all 

293 



MEXICO 

stood up and waved their hands in the air, which was 
their way of voting approval of one of Diaz' decrees. 

In a free country like the United States the elec- 
tions are always hotly contested. Does it not seem 
strange that in Mexico, with many millions of inhabi- 
tants, not one vote should be cast for any one but the 
President for eight successive elections? It is more 
than strange — it is incredible — unless the Presidential 
forces were in complete control of the voting booths. 
And such was the case, ^ot one real election was 
held during all the Diaz regime. 

So it came about that in spite of the wealth and ap- 
parent prosperity and order which came to Mexico un- 
der the rule of Porfirio Diaz, there was discontent all 
over the land. There was discontent among the peons, 
toiling until they dropped in mines and plantations; 
there was discontent in the army, which held so many 
men drafted unwillingly on account of being obnoxious 
to the Government that it was called the "E'ational 
Chain-gang" ; and there was discontent among the edu- 
cated people of democratic ideas, who saw that Por- 
firio Diaz, once a leading Liberal, had become a worse 
despot than the Czar of Russia. Such discontent is 
never repressed for long. Suddenly, towards the close 
of the last century, Liberal clubs began to organize. 
At first there was nothing political in their nature. 
IsTo, indeed! They had merely organized for purposes 
of peaceful reform. But by and by, towards the be- 

294 



DIAZ— THE DESPOT 

ginning of the twentieth century, it was rumored that 
the Liberals planned to nominate a candidate of their 
own at the next Presidential election. This was going 
too far ! Their meetings, no matter how peaceful, were 
broken up by the police, their members imprisoned or 
drafted into the army. As a consequence the Liberal 
party disappeared ; but it was not long before the Demo- 
cratic party took its place. 

This party, organized in 1909, adopted a program 
of reform, but at the same time nominated Diaz for 
President in the coming election. However, they 
named for Vice-President a different man from the 
Government candidate. The Government objected 
strongly and began oppressing the Democrats as it had 
the Liberals. But the feeling of the opposition had 
grown so deep that persecution only aroused, instead 
of suppressing it. Steadily the Democratic movement 
grew. Einally the members had the audacity to nomi- 
nate their own candidate, Francisco I. Madero, for 
President against Diaz. 



CHAPTEK XXI 
THE FALL OF DIAZ 

In September, 1910, the City of Mexico was the 
scene of a celebration that will long be remembered. 
All the world was invited to come and see for itself the 
splendid condition and achievements of the country un- 
der Diaz. Trains to the capital were loaded with vis- 
itors from far and near. They found the beautiful 
city in its gayest dress, decked with flags, by night 
flaming with electric lights in red, white and green, 
the national colors. Every day of the month had its 
special events: brilliant receptions given to foreign del- 
egates, historical pageants, military parades, band con- 
certs in the plazas, foundings of public buildings, ex- 
positions, presentations of gifts from other nations. 

In the center of everything was the tireless Presi- 
dent, Porfirio Diaz, incredibly young for his eighty 
or more years, his dark eyes as piercing as ever, his 
bearing as erect, his manner as full of dignity. When 
he made a procession through the streets of the capital 
on the sixteenth of September in honor of the hun- 
dredth anniversary of the Grito de Dolores, he was 

296 



THE FALL OF DIAZ 

greeted witli loud applause. Roses were showered 
into his carriage, and shouts of "Viva la Repuhlica 
Mexicanal Viva Don Porfirio Diaz!" rent the air. 

Two months later Madero's revolution against Diaz 
was in full swing! Eight months later it had swept 
the country and forced Diaz from the Presidency! 

Who was this Francisco I. Madero who could ac- 
complish such remarkable things ? He was a small, 
nervous man (afflicted, it is said, with epilepsy), hith- 
erto considered the unpractical, dreamy member of a 
very rich and practical family. (As a proof of this 
practicality, Madero's father had left an estate valued 
at $25,000,000 to his children.) Madero's only claim 
to attention, within a few months of the Revolution, 
was the publication of a book, called the ^'Presidential 
Succession of 1910," in which he criticized the Presi- 
dent mildly, and urged the people to insist on their 
right to a fair ballot and a candidate of their own 
choice at the next election. This book, although soon 
suppressed, had much to do with forming the new 
Democratic party, who dared to nominate Francisco I. 
Madero, the author, for President, and Vasquez Gomez 
for Vice-President. 

Government opposed this movement in the usual 
strong-handed way. The Democrats were thrown into 
prison. A little while before the election Madero was 
arrested on the charge, evidently invented for the occa- 
sion, of 'insulting the nation," and held in the peniten- 

297 



MEXICO 

tiarj at San Luis Potosi. Another chief Democrat 
was similarly treated. 

Election day thus came with the Democratic leaders 
out of the way and the members cowed and dispersed. 
Eederal soldiers guarded all the polls. The govern- 
ment enjoyed another "triumph." Diaz and his chosen 
Vice-President, Corral, were elected "practically unan- 
imously." 

The celebration at the City of Mexico just described 
took place a few months after these events, fit was a 
brilliant occasion; but the brilliancy was only a thin 
veneer over a very solid discontent. 

Frederick Starr, of the University of Chicago, who 
has spent years in Mexico studying the native races, 
has given us his impressions of how the people really 
felt about this fete, which cost fifteen or sixteen mil- 
lion Mexican dollars, that is, one dollar for every man, 
woman and child in the Pepublic. 

The temper of the common people had entirely 
changed during his memory. There was a time, not so 
long before, when any procession would throw them into 
fits of joy. But in 1910, the gayest public events left 
them listless and unmoved. 

"^Yhat a splendid procession!" he would exclaim, to 
a peon on the street. 

"Yes, sir, but what result has it?" 

"What a beautiful illumination!" 

^Who pays for it, sir ?" 

298 



THE FALL OF DIAZ 

"Hurrah ! here eomes Don Porfirio !" 

"He surrounds himself with bad ministers!" 

"What a magnificent building!" 

"Who has grown rich out of it, sir, while the people 
starve ?" 

"What a glorious celebration of your independence!" 

"Our independence is dead, sir !" 

Conversations like these showed which way the wind 
blew better than made-to-order flag wavings and dem- 
onstrations. 

Madero had been released from the penitentiary at 
San Luis Potosi shortly after the election. The gov- 
ernment thought that his claws were cut and he could 
do no more harm. It was mistaken. Madero con- 
sidered that he had been cheated out of his legal elec- 
tion and that he was justified in appealing to arms. 
Five days after he came out of prison, he issued a 
pamphlet entitled "The Call to Arms," which con- 
tained the "Plan of San Luis Potosi." 

In this Plan he promised free suffrage, no re-election, 
the restoration of the land which had been taken from 
the Indians, the freeing of political prisoners, and other 
much needed reforms. Soon after, he made his way 
in disguise to the United States, where he purchased 
large quantities of arms and ammunition, and organ- 
ized the rebellion from San Antonio, Texas. 

On the eighteenth of I^ovember, a mass meeting which 
was held at Puebla to protest against the fraudulent re- 

299 



MEXICO 

election of Diaz was broken up by the police, and in the 
fight which followed twenty-five people were killed. 
This was the first encounter of the Revolution of 1910- 
14. Shortly after, the revolution broke out in the 
north, the provinces of Chihuahua and Coahuila rising 
in revolt. As Madera was not by nature or training a 
military leader, General Orozco took charge of military 
operations in the north. 

Diaz at first pretended to take the Revolution very 
lightly. Government troops were hastened to the spot 
under General !N"avarro. It was thought that the 
trouble would soon blow over. But somehow or other 
the Revolution refused to be suppressed. It was not 
a local outbreak. The population of the two northern 
provinces was behind the Revolutionists almost to a 
man. Many soldiers sent against them' deserted to 
their side, which was not surprising, considering that 
so many Liberals- had been drafted unwillingly into the 
l^ational Army. 

By February, Madero had a large body of well- 
drilled, well-armed troops in the field. Moreover, the 
Revolutionary fever had spread to the South, uprisings 
having taken place at Vera Cruz and Orizaba. Yuca- 
tan, Campeche and Guerrero became seats of rebellion, 
and Zapata, a noted brigand of atrocious character, was 
in violent eruption in the south. 

In April, 1910, President Diaz saw a great light. 
He removed the most hated members of his cabinet and 

300 



THE FALL OF DIAZ 

substituted other more popular ones. He appeared 
before Congress and read a message in which he urged 
most of the reforms in the Madera platform. 

These measures had only one fault. They were too 
late! 

Even the docile Congress showed signs of becoming 
unruly. Its members awoke from their long sleep. 
They actually began to debate instead of simply voting 
as they were ordered. It was such a strange and novel 
phenomenon that people flocked to hear them. When 
anything was said against Diaz, there was loud ap- 
plause. 

At this point President Diaz requested an armistice 
in order to debate terms of peace with the Revolution- 
ists. Madero said that peace could only be granted on 
condition that Diaz resigned, with other terms that 
were distasteful to the government. War began again, 
on May 6, 1911. 

Four days afterward, the Eevolutionists captured the 
city of Juarez, which contained a large store of rifles, 
rapid fire guns and ammunition. Madero would not 
have the prisoners slaughtered in the ordinary Mexican 
way. He was opposed to such cruelty. 

This capture of the city of Juarez proved the decisive 
event of the Revolution. The Insurgents were now 
victorious everywhere in the north and south. The 
nation was apparently almost united in their favor. 

The stubborn old man in the capital at last had to 

301 . 



MEXICO 

"bow to the will of the people. pEt was agreed that he 
should resign, and that Foreign Secretary de la Barra 
should he made Provisional President until the next 
election six months hence. A few weeks later Diaz 
appeared to he still hesitating. On May 24, the date 
on which his resignation was due in Congress, a hand- 
bill was passed about saying that he did not intend to 
resign. Indignant crowds swarmed into Congress, 
shouting, ''Viva Madero!" (Long live Madero!) 
^'Muera DiazT' (Down with Diaz !) ^^The resignation ! 
The resignation!" 

^^It will come to-morrow," shouted a member of 
Congress. 

"N'o! ISTo! To-day! 'Now I We demand the res- 
ignation !" 

They rioted in the streets, throwing stones at the 
windows of El Imparcial, the government newspaper. 

In a strongly guarded house, an old man sick with an 
ulcerated tooth heard the shouts of ''Viva Madero! 
Muera Diaz!'' and winced. It was Porfirio Diaz. 
The next day he resigned. 

Before dawn he stole secretly out of his house and 
out of the city. Guarded by General Huerta, he 
reached Vera Cruz in safety, though his train was fired 
upon and several soldiers of his escort killed. In Vera 
Cruz he became the guest of the Pearson family, rich 
coal-oil magnates who had made tremendous sums in 

. 302 



THE FALL OF DIAZ 

Mexico tiiider his regime. A few days later he sailed 
away from Mexico forever. 

He had been a great and powerful ruler — but he had 
forgotten the people, from whom his power sprang — 
and now it was the people wK.. exiled him. The 
strength of his "iron hand" was broken. 



CHAPTEK XXII 
MADEEO AND HUEKTA 

On tlie seventh of June, 1911, Madero entered the 
City of Mexico in triumph. Everywhere he spoke to 
enthusiastic crowds of peons, who hailed him as their 
liberator. But early on that same morning the capital 
had been shaken by a severe earthquake, which was 
taken by many for a bad omen ! 

Madero was not yet President. Provisional Presi- 
dent de la Barra, formerly Ambassador to Washington, 
governed as per agreement until the next election, 
which took place on October 1, 1911. jit this election 
the peons for the first time in the history of the country 
voted freely. The result was that Madero was elected 
President, and Jose Pino Suarez, Vice-President. 

Madero's ship had not yet come into port; in fact, 
it was only starting out on a very rough voyage. He 
was an idealist, sincere in his belief that the people 
should own the land, but visionary and impractical in 
his methods of carrying it out. There was opposition 
to him in all quarters. The influential people who had 
prospered under the old regime thought his idealistic 

304 



MADEKO AND HUEETA 

plans for bettering the condition of the common people 
all nonsense; the common people were disgusted be- 
cause they did not receive free lands at once, as they 
had expected. There were complaints also because 
Madero put his own friends and relatives in important 
posts. For instance, his brother and his uncle were 
in the Cabinet. The brigand Zapata, supposed at first 
to be fighting to help the Revolution, kept right on kill- 
ing, burning and plundering in the South, although the 
Bevolution was over. Madero did not show great firm- 
ness in putting him down, and it was whispered that 
he had some secret agreement with him. 

No less than four attempts to overthrow the Presi- 
dent occurred, one after another, within a short time. 
Orozco, the same chief who had formerly fought for 
Madero, now headed a revolution in the north against 
him. The peons knew the reason 

They say that Pascual Orozco has turned his coat 
Because Don Terrazzas seduced him; 
They gave him many millions and they bought him 
And sent him to overthrow the government. 

So runs a verse from one of their ballads of the time. 
Terrazzas is the head of one of the great mining fam- 
ilies. The American mining interests of that region 
without doubt financed the revolution against Madero. 
They wished everything to go on as it had under Diaz, 
so that they could make more money. Orozco was 
finally suppressed by General Huerta with his troops. 

305 



MEXICO 

Yasquez Gomez, the defeated candidate for Vice- 
President, also started a revolution, but was soon de- 
feated. The other attempts were made by Felix Diaz, 
a nephew of the former President, and General Reyes, 
the defeated candidate for President. They were sup- 
pressed, but Madero would not execute Diaz and Reyes, 
according to the Mexican custom, but only imprisoned 
them in the City of Mexico. 

By February, 1913, Madero had put down four re- 
bellions and was still President. He was confident that 
he could finish his term. But his hopes had a rude 
shock. » 

On the night of the eighth of February, Diaz and 
Reyes, whose lives Madero had spared, and who had 
been plotting ever since in their prison, were set free, 
evidently through agreement with the jailors. They 
put themselves at the head of troops which suddenly 
turned the capital into a battlefield. So began the ter- 
rible period fitly called ^'La decena trdgica" ("The 
Tragic Ten Days)." 

A force of men under General Reyes attacked the 
!N'ational Palace, the home of the President. Madero, 
warned a short time before of what was afoot, had in- 
stantly made preparations for defense. He himself 
took command of the troops of the E'ational Palace and 
a murderous fire from machine guns poured upon the 
insurrectionists. General Reyes was killed and his 
forces repulsed. But the fighting went on under other 

306 



MADEEO AND HUEKTA 

leaders. Desperate battles took place in the main 
streets of the crowded city. Shells exploded, bullets 
whizzed from all points at once. The Y. M. C. A. 
building was seized by the rebels, who directed from 
it a heavy fire upon the ^N^ational Palace. 

The many foreign residents of the city were natu- 
rally much alarmed. Those who could, left in haste, 
but others felt compelled to stay and look after their 
interests. Great anxiety was felt in the United States 
for the safety of the many Americans in the capital, 
and it was thought that we might have to intervene to 
prevent their slaughter, but President Taft announced 
that no action would be taken unless Americans were 
especially threatened. 

Madero was urged to resign. He replied that he 
would die before he would give up the office to which 
he had been elected by the free votes of the people. He 
had sent for General Blanquet, sixty miles out of the 
city, to come to his aid at once with reinforcements. 
There had been some rumors about Blanquet' s loyalty, 
but when he promptly appeared with his troops 
Madero' s doubts were set at rest. Also there was Gen- 
eral Huerta, whose strong right arm had put down the 
rebellion under Orozco. Surely he could quell this one 
also. Alas, Madero was depending upon snakes in the 
grass ! 

On February 18, General Blanquet and General 
Huerta with their troops entered the I^ational Palace 

307 



MEXICO 

which they were supposed to defend, and arrested 
Madero. In all probability they had been in sympathy 
with the insurgents from the first and had only been 
biding their time to declare themselves in their true 
colors. 

When Madero found himself surrounded by his ene- 
mies, he turned to Huerta and exclaimed, 

"Kill me, my General! I will die President of 
Mexico!" 

Huerta refused. He arrested him and the Vice- 
President, Suarez, confining them in the Palace. That 
same afternoon Gustave Madero, the President's 
brother, a member of Madero's Cabinet, was arrested, 
and soon shot. Two days after, the parties in power, 
Diaz, Blanquet and Huerta, called Congress into extra- 
ordinary session. The members, knowing what was 
good for them, made Huerta Provisional President. 

All these things could be accomplished with the help 
of the Government army, because it was accustomed to 
obey Huerta under the Diaz regime. Indeed, the igno- 
rant soldiers hardly cared which party was in power. 
A story is told of some soldiers who were standing out- 
side one of the legations during the Diaz-Madero con- 
flict. 

"From what side are. you protecting us ?" a member 
of the legation inquired. "Are you for Diaz or 
Madero?" 

308 



MADERO AND HUEETA 

"Pues, senor," they replied, "our officer will be back 
soon, and then we shall know." 

On the night of the twenty-second the two distin- 
guished prisoners were taken from the ISTational Palace 
under close guard, supposedly to be transferred to the 
Penitentiary. There is a rumor current in Mexico 
that it was not two men, but their dead bodies, which 
were taken from the Palace that night. At any rate, 
Madero and Suarez never reached the Penitentiary 
alive. On the w^ay there some confusion arose in the 
street and shots were fired. When the smoke had 
cleared away, Madero and Suarez were dead. 

The peons of the Revolution sing a ballad around 
their camp fires which hints at an even darker tragedy. 
As quoted by the traveler, John Reed, it runs like this : 

In Nineteen hundred and ten 
Madero was imprisoned 
In the National Palace 
The eighteenth of February. 

Four days he was imprisoned 
In the Hall of the Intendancy 
Because he did not wish 
To renounce the Presidency. 

Then Blanquet and Felix Diaz 
Martyred him there. 
They were the hangmen 
Feeding on his hate. 

309 



MEXICO 

They cruslied - 
Until he fainted, 
With play of cruelty 
To make him resign. 

Then with hat irons 
They burned him wdthout mercy. 
And only unconsciousness 
Calmed the awful flames. 

But it was all in vain, 
Because his mighty courage 
Preferred rather to die; 
His was a great heart! 

This was the end of the life 
Of him who was the redeemer 
Of the Indian Republic, 
And of all the poor. 

They tdok him out of the Palace, 
And tell us he was killed in an assault. 
What a cynicism! 
What a shameless lie! 

Street of Lecumberri, 
Your cheerfulness has ended forever, 
For through you passed Madero 
To the Penitentiary. 

That twenty-second of February 

Will always be remembered in the Indian Republic. 

God has pardoned him, 

And the Virgin of Guadalupe. 

310 



» 



MADEKO AND HUEKTA 

Good-by, Beautiful Mexico, 
Where our leader died. 
Good-by to the palace 
Whence he issued a living corpse. 

Senores, there is nothing eternal, 
Nor anything sincere in life. 
See what happened 
To Don Francisco 1. Madero! 



CHAPTEE XXIII 
CAERANZA AND VILLA 

The man wHo had overthrown Madero, and who was 
considered by nearly every one responsible for his death, 
was an Indian of nearly pure Aztec blood, who had 
received an education at Chapultepec, the Mexican 
West Point, and had served in a scientific capacity on 
the General Staff of the army under Diaz. He had 
been a personal friend of Diaz, and in every way, an 
upholder of the old order. "An able, crafty, half- 
educated savage, hiding in his breast the fierce hunger 
of ambition," as an editor of Mexico City has described 
him. He soon secured himself the office of Provisional 
President, and employed all the sledge-hammer methods 
characteristic of Diaz to increase his power. Soon 
after his forced election, his soldiers drove most of the 
members of Congress from their hall at the point of 
the bayonet, and imprisoned them for speaking against 
the administration. 

Huerta needed all the force he could command, for 
the power he had usurped was instantly threatened by 
a new party, calling themselves the Constitutionalists, 

312 



CAEKANZA Al^D VILLA 

as opposed to the Huertistas or Federals. There were 
several chiefs conspicuous in this movement, but the 
principal one, and the one destined to endure, was 
Venustiano Carranza. 

When Madero was making his triumphal progress 
towards the City of Mexico in 1910, he addressed the 
people from the balcony of the Governor's palace in 
Chihuahua. 

"As he told of the hardships endured and the sacri- 
fices made by the little band of men who had over- 
thrown the dictatorship of Diaz forever," says a maga- 
zine correspondent, "he was overcome with emotion. 
Keaching inside the room, he pulled out a tall, bearded 
man of commanding presence, and, throwing his arm 
about his shoulder, he said, in a voice choked with tears, 

" ^This is a good man ! Love and honor him 
always ' " 

This man was Carranza. He was a rich landowner, 
the descendant of an old Spanish family. He had been 
a senator from the state of Coahuila for ten or fifteen 
years under Diaz; during that time he was a dignified 
cipher, never speaking either for or against a measure, 
hiding his disapproval of the Diaz regime under a stolid 
manner. Madero had made him Governor of Coahuila. 
When he heard of Madero's downfall and death he 
threw aside his stolidity and hastened to raise the stand- 
ard of revolt in the north. The peons flocked around 
him, influenced partly by the hereditary respect they 

313 



MEXICO 

felt towards him as a great haciendado, and partly by 
their own desire for rebellion. The revolt soon spread 
to Sonora, Chihuahua, ITueva Leon and Tamaulipas. 

Carranza is a tall, clumsy, silent man, a mystery to 
the Mexicans closest to him as well as to foreigners. 
He was well past middle age when he began his revolu- 
tion, is not distinguished in a military way, but pos- 
sesses apparently an immense amount of determination 
and patience. An odd feature of his personality is, 
that despite his age and silent disposition, he is very 
fond of banquets and balls, and is accused of spending 
too much of his time in junketing about the country. 

One of Carranza's chief military leaders was Obre- 
gon, who operated in the Sonora region; the other was 
Villa, who brought Chihuahua under control. Fran- 
cisco, or ^^Pancho," Villa is the comic character of the 
Revolution, the ^'j oiliest cutthroat in all the land," 
Hubert Bancroft calls him. He was for a while the 
favorite topic with the American newspapers, who never 
tired of publishing his exploits, real or imaginary, but 
now he is nearly forgotten, the hero of a tale that is 
told. However, he has been the cause of disturbance 
enough to be entitled to his page in history. He was 
a bandit while Diaz was in power — the Mexican E-obin 
Hood, who rustled cattle from the great Terrazzas es- 
tates in Chihuahua, held up travelers, and then often 
shared his spoils with the poverty-stricken peons. The 
story goes that he was driven to a bandit life through 

314 



cakka:n^za and villa 

having been outlawed as a young man on account of 
shooting a man who had injured his sister. Whether 
or not this was true, the Robin Hood life must have 
suited his temperament very well. Songs which the 
peons sing around their campfires of an evening cele- 
brate many of his exploits. Once, they say, when he 
was an outlaw with a price of $10,000 on his head, 
he sent word that he was coming into Chihuahua on a 
certain day to kill a follower who had tried to betray 
him. On the appointed date, he rode into the city in 
broad daylight, ate ice-cream in the Plaza, strolled 
leisurely about the streets until he met the man he was 
looking for, shot him dead, and escaped. Such stories 
make one wish that there was a Bret Harte in Mexico ! 
He was in fact a clever and daring rascal, the only man 
in Mexico who defied Diaz* rurales for many years. 
He fought more than eighty battles with them, but 
always escaped. 

At the beginning of Madero's revolt, Villa found an 
outlet for his abundant energies in joining the Revolu- 
tionists, and quickly developed great military skill. 
When Madero became President, he made him a leader 
of rurales, and set him to catching bandits. While 
Huerta was acting for Madero in the north of Mexico 
he declared Villa guilty of insubordination and ordered 
him to be shot. Madero heard of the sentence in time 
to save Villa's life. Villa naturally thereafter hated 
Huerta, and hastened to join in the revolt against him. 

315 



MEXICO 

It is said that he set out from El Paso in April, 1913, 
to conquer Mexico, with four companions, three led 
horses, two pounds of sugar and coffee, and a pound of 
salt ! In a month he had raised an army of three thou- 
sand men, and in two months was driving out the Fed- 
eral garrisons all over the south of Chihuahua. 

During the spring and summer of 1913, the Con- 
stitutionalists kept the Federals on the run in northern 
Mexico and soon had control of all that part of the 
country. Meanwhile the brigand Zapata still continued 
to ravage the south, and the Indians of Puehla and 
Vera Cruz rose in revolt. 

The United States refused from the first to recognize 
Huerta, since he was plainly a usurper who had over- 
thrown by force the legal government of the country. 
President Wilson recalled our Ambassador, Henry Lane 
Wilson, from the City of Mexico, but during the sum- 
mer of 1913, sent his personal representative, ex-Gov- 
ernor Lind of Minnesota, to ask Huerta to resign and 
not come up for re-election. Huerta obstinately re- 
fused. It was evident, however, that the days of his 
power were numbered. As President Wilson pointed 
out, in his First Annual Message to Congress, December 
2, 1913: 

"Little by little Huerta has been completely isolated. 
By a little every day his power and prestige are crum- 
bling, and the collapse is not far away. We shall not, 

316 



CAEKA:NrZA AND VILLA 

I believe, be obliged to alter our policy of watchful 
waiting/' 

The pbrase contained in the last two words instantly 
became famous. Those who had interests in Mexico 
and selfishly wished the ^^strongest man" to be recog- 
nized at once, regardless of the rights of the case, were 
irritated by it. Criticism and ridicule of the Presi- 
dent were freely expressed — all to no effect. Quietly, 
Wilson steered his course between the whirlpool of open 
war on the one hand and the rock of recognition 6f 
Huerta on the other. In acknowledgment of the 
dangers of the situation, however, he urged all Ameri- 
cans in Mexico to leave the country. Many did so, but 
others who had made it their home for years, and to 
whom banishment meant beggary, decided to stay. 
Huerta is credited, at least, with doing everything in 
his power to protect the Americans from injury. 

Although Huerta' s government had been recognized 
by England, France and Germany, the foreign finan- 
ciers would not lend it money as long as the United 
States refused its recogition. Huerta began to lack 
"the sinews of war." 

^ Mexico in the winter of 1914, says Edward I. Bell, 
in the "Political Shame of Mexico," may be considered 
as consisting of two nations, the one over which Huerta 
ruled, and the one in which Carranza was the reigning 
prince and Pancho Villa the military genius. Under 
ordinary conditions, Huerta' s part was much richer and 

317 



MEXICO 

more powerful than the barren northern country of the 
Bevolutionists ; but with foreign loans cut off, the finan- 
cial system became demoralized, business was at a 
standstill, and there was nothing to buy arms and am- 
munition for the army. 

As Huerta still did not resign, in February, 1914, 
President Wilson lifted the embargo on shipping arms 
and ammunition to Mexico which had been in force for 
nearly two years, thus enabling the Constitutionalists 
to receive all they wanted from our side of the border. 

Two months afterward occurred the ^^insult to the 
flag" at Tampico, which showed the irritation of the 
Huerta party against the United States, though Huerta 
himself was probably not responsible for it. 

On April 9, 1914, some sailors from a United States 
gunboat, flying the American flag, who had landed at 
Tampico for gasoline, were arrested by a Federal gen- 
eral and paraded under guard through the streets amid 
the jeering populace. Admiral Mayo at once sent a 
demand to General Zarapoza, in command of the Mexi- 
can forces at Tampico, for ''formal disavowal and 
apology for the act," also a salute of twenty-one guns 
to the United States flag, within twenty-four hours. 

General Zaragoza released the men, and Huerta sent 
an apology to I^elson O'Shaughnessy, the American 
Charge d' Affaires in the capital. But he refused to 
order the salute. 

President Wilson and the Cabinet at Washington 

318 



CAEEANZA AKD VILLA 

backed up Admiral Mayo in his demands. All the 
available battleships of the Atlantic fleet were ordered 
to Tampico. The time limit for the salute was ex- 
tended to ten days. This time limit passed, without 
the salute's being fired. As a consequence, on the 
morning of April 21, a force of United States marines 
and sailors, under command of Admiral Fletcher, took 
possession of the Vera Cruz customs house, having re- ^ 
ceived orders to that effect from Washington. In the 
action four Americans were killed and twenty wounded/ 
while the Mexicans lost over one hundred. 

On the same day our forces, amounting to 5,250 
men, took possession of the city, which was shelled by 
our battleships. Hostile relations went on for three 
days. The Americans lost sixteen killed and seventy 
wounded, the Mexicans 126 killed and 321 wounded. 
At the end of that time the Americans were in com- 
plete control. General Tunston's brigade from Galves- 
ton soon arrived, the command on land was transferred 
to him, and a fine exhibition o:^ order, government and 
sanitary efficiency was given by the American troops. 
The municipal government of the city was reestab- 
lished, the Vera Cruz people soon lost their fear of the 
invaders, and business and pleasure went on almost as 
usual. One of the first acts of the Americans was to 
tackle the horrible old prison of San Juan de Ulua on 
the Isle de Sacrificios, and release the political prisoners 
who were rotting there in the dungeons under sea-level, 

319 



MEXICO 

many of whom had even forgotten their own names, 
while the world had long since forgotten their existence, 
much less their crimes. Indeed, three hundred and 
twenty-five were found with no crime whatever charged 
against them. These were of course released. 

On April 25, came an offer from the three great 
South American powers, Argentine, Brazil and Chili, to 
mediate hetween the United States and the Huerta 
government. This offer, which seemed to open a way 
out of the deadlock, was accepted. The "A-B-C Con- 
ference," as it was called, met in May at Niagara 
Falls, and consisted of two men chosen by the United 
States, three by President Huerta, and the South 
American diplomats. Their debates had no practical 
result, but the whole situation was soon cleared by 
Huerta's resig-nation. Feeling that his usurped posi- 
tion had become absolutely untenable, the crafty Aztec 
general quietly left the capital in July, 1914. 

Some time later he took up his residence with his 
family on Long Island, JSTew York. At that time New 
York was full of exiled Mexicans, and the existence 
there of a junta which was planning to restore Huerta 
was practically certain. Huerta was closely watched 
by the United States Secret Service. He lived on Long 
Jsland till June 24, 1915, when he left for the purpose, 
he declared, of visiting his daughter in Texas. But 
the authorities did not trust him so near the border, 
and he was arrested on the charge of organizing a mili- 

320 




Cathedeat. of Mexico, 
Mexico City, 



CAEKAI^ZA AND VILLA 

tary expedition to Mexico, and jailed in the military 
prison at Fort Bliss. He did not long survive this final 
failure of his schemes, but died in January, 1916. 

The Constitutionalist Revolution, meanwhile, made 
great headway, and Carranza's forces, having gained 
control of all the north, entered the City of Mexico in 
August, 1914, seventeen months after he had begun his 
struggle. This marked the end of the first period of 
the Revolution ; the second, when the various Constitu- 
tionalist chiefs struggled for supremacy among them- 
selves, was to last some years longer. Villa quarreled 
with Carranza oven before Huerta left; in October, 
1914, he was at open war, being jealous because in that 
month Carranza was formally recognized as Provisional 
President by the United States and eight of the Repub- 
lics of South and Central America. 

The little border town of Columbus, New Mexico, 
one dark night in March, 1916, was aroused from its 
slumbers by a sudden uproar. Villa's bandits, prob- 
ably led by Villa himself, were shooting up the town. 
During the raid they killed 17 Americans, civilians and 
soldiers. So did the relapsed rebel and outlaw pay off 
his spite against the United States for recognizing his 
rival, Carranza, and also make things uncomfortable 
for Carranza by giving the United States a cause for 
the invasion of Mexico. 

President Wilson and the Cabinet quickly decided to 
send a force into Mexico to punish Villa. The expe- 

321 



MEXICO 

dition entered Mexico on March 19, and 12,000 Ameri- 
can soldiers under General Pershing pursued the ban- 
dits for six weeks through the barren stretches of the 
north. Carranza was supposed to consent to the inva- 
sion, but in April, a month after the Americans had 
entered, a small force of United States soldiers was 
attacked by his men. This led to the dispatch of heavy 
reinforcements to General Pershing and the general 
contraction of the American lines. The pursuit of 
Yilla was virtually abandoned, but our troops were still 
kept in the country. On May 31, the United States 
government received a note from Carranza stating that 
the Pershing expedition had gone into Mexico without 
Carranza's consent, and asking for the immediate with- 
drawal of the American troops in Mexican territory. 
On June 16, Carranza's representative. General 
Trevino, informed General Pershing that if the Ameri- 
can troops moved in any direction but northward it 
would be considered a hostile act. 

President Wilson responded by calling out prac- 
tically the entire organized militia of the various states ! 

Thus took place the exodus of 148,000 stalwart young 
Americans from the office, the farm, the factory, or the 
pleasant loafing of a college vacation, to the hot, sandy 
stretches of the border. 

President Wilson informed Carranza that he refused 
to withdraw the American troops, and that any attempt 

322 



/ 



CAKKAl^ZA AND VILLA 

to expel the American troops hj force would be followed 
by "the gravest consequences." 

Then occurred the battle at Carrizal, Chihuahua, 
where Pershing's soldiers were ambushed by Carran- ^ 
i zistas and a score of them killed. The responsibility 
for this affair has never been fully fixed. Secretary 
Lane called the explanatory statement submitted by the 
Mexican government "a formal avowal of a deliberately 
hostile action." 

LSoon after, President Wilson accepted Carranza's 
ffer for a joint commission to confer regarding the 
withdrawal of American troops and the origin of bandit 
raids. This commission met in September and con- 
tinued in session till November, when it drew up a 
protocol. Carranza found this unsatisfactory and re- 
fused to sign it. 

The Pershing forces were gradually withdrawn from 
Mexico during the winter of 1917, the National Guard 
having returned to their homes by detachments during 
the fall. Though the expedition had not succeeded in 
capturing Villa, it showed that the United States was 
ready and able to protect its border against his or simi- 
lar depredations; it also served as a preparation of our 
military forces for a far more harrowing issue. The 
boys who gallantly played at war with Mexico are fight- 
ing and. dying to-day on the battlefields of Europe, and 
in that grim reality the expedition to the Mexican 
border seems almost like a dream. 

323 



MEXICO 

Though Yilla escaped capture by the Americans, he 
was soon defeated by Carranza and his faction under 
the leadership of General Obregon. With surprising 
suddenness he faded out of the American newspapers 
of which he had been a star feature. For a year or 
more his whereabouts and even existence were in doubt. 
In the fall of 1917, says a correspondent of one of our 
papers, he reappeared wearing a patriarchal black beard 
and mounted on a white mule. He attacked the Mexi- 
can town of Ojinaga with a small force, and defeated 
the Carranzista troops, but the victory was unimpor- 
tant. And so he disappears from our history, pictur- 
esque to the last, as are most of the Mexican heroes, 
but very far from being a great man. 

In the winter of 1917, Mexico was in an apparently 
hopeless condition. Villa was operating in the north, 
Zapata controlling the State of Morelos, south of the 
capital, the followers of Felix Diaz were dominant in 
Oaxaca, Porfirio Diaz' native state — and one Manuel 
Palez was conducting an insurrection of his own along 
the east coast. Mexico was bankrupt, since no finan- 
ciers would lend the Carranza government money under 
such disturbed conditions. 

Carranza, nevertheless, slowly but surely gained 
strength, and began to show signs of establishing a 
democratic and truly representative government in the 
face of all this chaos. 

As early as the fall of 1916, reports reached an 

324 



CAEKAN^ZA AND VILLA 

incredulous world that elections had been held in Mex- 
ico to choose delegates to meet in convention at Quere- 
taro to revise the Mexican Constitution. The other 
nations smiled. This eternal preoccupation of Mexico 
with its Constitution when the wildest anarchy ruled 
all over the land seemed like a man mortally ill worry- 
ing over a sanitary code, or the crew of a ship which 
was pounding against the rocks studying the laws of 
navigation. 

However, in February, 1917, the new Constitution 
was passed; and foreigners heard with indignation 
that under its provisions they would not be allowed to 
l^old property in localities where they might furnish 
excuse for foreign intervention — i. e., within a certain 
distance from the seacoast and the border — also that 
mine holdings would be arranged to contribute rather 
to Mexican than foreign wealth — that large landed es- 
tates were to be broken up and parceled out in small 
f arms^ — oil deposits were to be- the property of the na- 
tion, to be developed only on payment of royalties to 
the Government instead of as before to owners of land 
covering the deposits — in fact, that Mexico was hence- 
forth to be for the Mexicans, and the glad, grabbing 
days of the Diaz era were over forever. 

The other provisions of the new Constitution are 
just as radical, and planned with one purpose — to effect 
the welfare of Mexico's hitherto "submerged" classes. 
They embody the very newest social reforms, which in 

325 



MEXICO 

other countries have only been attempted, if attempted 
at allj in experimental legislation, but in Mexico are 
now the paving-stones in the governmental platform. 
The eight-hour day, the minimum wage, profit-sharing 
in industry, and other such measures are carefully pro- 
vided for. Nations who consider themselves advanced 
can afford to watch Mexico with interest. She has been 
called the undeveloped among nations, but it sometimes 
happens that "a little child shall lead them.'' 

The laws of the new Constitution in regard to reli- 
gion are practically the same as the Reform Laws of 
Juarez, but are more strictly enforced. Under Diaz 
the Catholics had been slowly but surely regaining' 
wealth and power. These are now gone. One new 
provision is "that only Mexicans by birth may be min- 
isters of any religious creed in Mexico;" this is aimed 
at the foreign priests who have often made mischief in 
the country. It is of course also resented by Protes- 
tants who wish to send missionaries there. Religious 
instruction is absolutely forbidden in the schools. 

In March, 1917, a national election was held, and 
Yenustiano Carranza, commander-in-chief and acting 
executive of the Constitutionalist movement, was elected 
President of the Republic. Members of Congress 
were also elected who were not mere figure-heads, but 
intelligent and public-spirited men. Though the 
country was not yet pacified, elections were held in the 

326 



caeka:n^za and villa 

states whenever possible, and governors chosen in sym- 
pathy with the new movement. 

An example of what a State Governor of the new 
kind can accomplish is shown in Yucatan, which, under 
Diaz, was one of the most conspicuous of the national 
scandals. The land all belonged to a few rich men, 
and the natives were slaves whose lives were devoted to 
the production of hennequen hemp, a fiber for binder 
twine. 

The present Governor of Yucatan, Salvador Alva- 
rado, insists that laborers shall be free to make their 
own agreements to work as they please, has established 
a minimum wage, organized a board of control to regu- 
late prices and distribution, and taken up with great 
zeal the matter of public education. There are now 
at least five times as many school-teachers as soldiers 
in Yucatan — a great change from former days. A 
School City modeled on Booker Washington's Tuskegee 
Institute is training native leaders for the Maya In- 
dians, hitherto isolated and uncivilized and at war with 
the government, which seemed bent upon exterminating 
them. This school is very popular and will bring about 
a great change in the condition of this people. 

The regeneration of Mexico as a whole is not of 
course an affair of a few months or a few years. A 
larger intelligent middle class is greatly needed to take 
advantage of the improved business and social condi- 
tions. The upper classes have been too rich, and the 

327 



MEXICO 

peons too poor, for a progressive spirit to rule. It is 
not strange, considering their long years of oppression, 
that the peons lack initiative. A keen observer of 
Mexican affairs, Charles Flandrau, suggests another 
very possible reason for their lack of energy. ^^IsTo peo- 
ple whose diet consists chiefly of tortillas, chile, black 
coflee and cigarettes are ever going to be lashed by the 
desire to accomplish. This is the diet of babies as 
soon as they are weaned. I have heard proud mothers 
at country dances compare notes. 

" ^My little boy' — aged three — Von't look at a tor- 
tilla unless it is covered with chile," one of them ex- 
plains. 

" 'Does he cry for coffee V inquires another. ^My 
baby' — aged two and a half — 'screams and cries unless 
we give her coffee three and four times a day.' 

",It is not surprising that a population perpetually 
in the throes of intestinal disorder should be somewhat 
lacking in energy." 

N^either is it surprising that a people of whom only 
an extremely small proportion have been educated 
should be lacking in progressiveness. The Carranza 
government is intensely interested in education and is 
establishing it on a scale much greater than ever before 
known in the country. When Carranza was winning 
his way but slowly, and the Constitutionalist govern- 
ment ruled only a small portion of the country, when 
the money to buy supplies for the army was exceedingly 

328 



CAKKANZA AND VILLA 

scanty, Carranza nevertheless sent several hundred 
teachers on a trip to the United States to investigate the 
best methods of education for a democracy. 

The date of the close of this history, then, sees the 
beginning of the true dawn of Mexican progress. Her 
night has been long. Of all modern nations, she had 
perhaps the most to suffer not only from oppression and 
exploitation from without, but from conflicting impulses 
within. Those who should have helped her to stand 
upright have been the most ready to lay heavy burdens 
upon her back ; those who have risen to defend her have 
been swayed by vanity and treachery. Her wars, car- 
ried on from beginning to end with that extreme fero- 
city which is a legacy from the Spaniards as well as 
a characteristic of the native races of Mexico, have 
robbed her population of its best blood to an alarming 
degree. Yet, in times of greatest need, there have 
arisen national heroes of unsullied reputation, from 
Guatemozin, the undaunted defender of Tenochtitlan, 
to Juarez, the steadfast Indian president. More and 
more it appears that the men now in power are of the 
latter type; that they sincerely love their country, and 
that they are planning its welfare with a disinterested- 
ness far above the average in statesmanship. The civil 
wars were like the fires which in tropical countries are 
necessary to clear the ground of obstructions; already 
a new growth of free institutions flourishing amid 
healthy conditions is visible. 

329 



MEXICO 

The greatest boon ttiat Mexico can ask of her sister 
nations is this: that they shall know something of the 
conflicts that have made her what she is ; that they shall 
see something of the ideals towards which she is so 
painfully struggling. "With such knowledge and such 
vision, sympathy for her is inevitable; and with sympa- 
thy substituted for selfishness, Mexico will be able to 
work out her destiny in her own way, to the ultimate 
satisfaction of herself and the world. 



